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THE 



First Presbyterian Church, 

AUBURN, N. Y. 
1 8 10-1876. 






THE HISTORY 



OF THE 



^ii^t fVe^bytefikq &\ui^l|, 



AUBURN, N. Y. 



A DISCOURSE DELIVERED ON SUCCESSIVE SABBATHS, JULY 2D AND 9TH, 1876, IN 

ACCORDANCE WITH THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 

IN THE OBSERVANCE OF THE NATION'S CENTENNIAL, 



BY 

CHAKLES HAWLEY, D.D, 

PASTOR. 



— »«»»« — 



AUBURN, N. Y. 

DAILY ADVERTISER AND WEEKLY JOURNAL STEAM BOOK PRINT. 

1876. 



'4h- 





Printed by subscription, and the edition limited to one hundred and 
seventy copies. 



DI8COUESE 



" Walk about Zion, and go round about her ; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye 
well her bulwarks, consider her palaces that ye may tell it to the generation fol- 
lowing." — Psalm xlviii: 12, 13. 

This day, sacred alike to piety and patriotism, lias been chosen 
by the authorities of the Presbyterian Church of the United 
States to commemorate the nation's centennial. A prominent 
feature in its observance, commended to each congregation, is the 
rehearsal of its own history as forming a part of the common her- 
itage of the church and the nation. Presbyterianism, as a sys- 
tem of religious doctrine and ecclesiastical order, had nearly 
reached its centennial on this continent, at the adoption of the 
Declaration of Independence. 1 The part it had in the events 
which led to the independence of the Colonies and subsequently 
in shaping the republic, is well known, and forms no inconsider- 
able portion of the history of the country itself at that early pe- 
riod. 

It is no part of my duty on this occasion, to review that histor- 
ical era, or recite the progress since achieved in the direction then 
indicated. It is rather the more humble task of recounting what 
has been done on this ground, that we may see how far events 
and individuals here have contributed toward the grand result. 
I will be as brief as possible and be just ; and if the story tax 
your patience, in the telling of it, I beg you will consider that 
the occasion can occur only this once in our lives. 



1 The distinction of laying the foundations of the Presbyterian Church as an organized body 
in this country, belongs to Francis McKamie, an Irishman by birth, a student at one of the 
Scotch universities and a licentiate of the Presbytery of Laggan in 1681. Three years later, 
in 1684, he organized the Presbyterian Church at Snow Hill, Maryland. Here in the narrow 
neck of land between the Chesapeake and the ocean, sheltered by the mild laws of a colony 
founded by a Roman Catholic nobleman, the Presbyterian Church of America began its ex- 
istence.— Hist. Pres. Church, Vol 1, p. 4. 



Neither this church, nor Auburn, with the earliest settlement 
of which it is identified, has as yet completed its century. One 
hundred years ago, there was no trace, on this ground, of our 
present civilization. The only fragment of Revolutionary history 
which attaches to this vicinity, is connected with the expedi- 
tion under General Sullivan in 1779, planned by Washington 
himself, in retaliation of repeated massacres by the Indians, among 
the border settlements of New York and Pennsylvania, and ex- 
ecuted with relentless vengeance upon the Senecas and Cayugas. 
Their villages were burned; their fields of corn just maturing 
for the harvest were destroyed ; their gardens and orchards devas- 
tated, and the country thrown back a century in its civiliza- 
tion, 1 within the brief space of a fortnight. This work of de- 
struction among the Cayugas was executed by a portion of Sul- 
livan's army, detached for the purpose, and under the command 
of Col. Zebulon Butler, the gallant officer who had made such 
a heroic defence, the year before, at Wyoming against an attack 
of Indians and tories, and whose defeat, by vastly superior num- 
bers, was followed by one of the most cruel and bloody massa- 
cres known to savage warfare. Darkness had put an end to the 
pursuit of the broken and shattered ranks along the line of de- 
fence for the protection of that charming valley ; but not to the 
horrors. It was a dreadful night for Wyoming, as the enemy 
elated by their victory, held their frightful orgies on the battle 
field, torturing and tomahawking their prisoners, while the terri- 
fied inhabitants were flying to the mountains and forests beyond, 
under cover of the darkness. 2 Among those who made their 
escape on that murderous night, taking her two boys on horse- 
back, was the mother of Dan and David Hyde, names prominent 



i " It is apprehended that few of the present generation are aware of the advances which 
the Indians in the wide and beautiful country of the Cayugas and Senecas had made in the 
march of civilization. They had several towns and many large villages, laid out with a con- 
siderable degree of regularity. They had framed houses, some of them well finished, hav- 
ing chimneys and painted. They had broad and productive fields ; and in addition to an 
abundance of apples were the enjoyment of the pear and the more luscious peach.'"— forte's 
Life of Brant, Vol. 11, p. 25. 

2 For a minute and graphic account of the whole scene, see Lossing's Field Book of the 
Revolution, Vol. 1, pp. 355-363. 



in the early annals of Auburn, and who herself, thirty years af- 
ter, became a member of this church at the first communion after 
its organization. 

It had been claimed for the Cayugas that they were at least 
neutral at this stage of the war, as were the Oneidas ; but Col. 
Butler found white scalps, freshly taken, hung up in their houses ; 
and with these evidences of their treachery before his eyes, and 
the scene of Wyoming vivid in his memory, we may well believe 
that he executed the work of destruction committed to him with 
a vigorous and unsparing hand. He burned three towns, includ- 
ing their capital, destroying also a large quantity of grain, fruits 
and vegetables. Whatever may be thought of the expediency of 
the expedition under Sullivan, as a military measure, it resulted in 
opening the way for the speedy settlement of this region of the 
State, until then closed against the permanent abode of the white 
man. 

More than tea hundred years antecedent to these events, per- 
sistent and heroic efforts" had been made by the French Jesuit 
Fathers to win the Iroquois to the christian faith ; and as early 
as 1656, one hundred and forty years before any of our mission- 
aries came into this region, an attempt was made by Father Ren& 
Menard to establish a mission among the Cayugas, and a rude 
chapel was built at their capital, located on the east side of the 
Cayuga lake, a mile and a half north of the present village of 
Union Springs. This,' together with the other French missions 
of that date, was soon broken up by wars with the French in 
Canada and neighboring tribes, until 1668, when another mission 
was founded by Father Stephen de Carheil, which continued with 
varying fortunes, but at no time with encouraging success until 
1684, when this accomplished and intrepid missionary was plun- 
dered of all he possessed and driven from the country. I know 
of no mission field, ancient or modern, which presents a record of 
more devoted and patient toil, or of more splendid sacrifice of 
learning, genius and piety than this among the Cayuga Indians, 
nearly a century and a quarter before the first white settler built 
his cabin on their ancient domain. 



6 

There arc also traces of Moravian missionaries in this vicinity 
as early as 1750, but they established no mission. One of them, 
David Zeisberger, distinguished both for zeal and learning, made 
several visits among the Cayugas, and at one time with the pur- 
j K >se of permanent labors ; but the first night of his arrival at one 
of their principal villages, he was so maltreated by the leader of 
a party of Dutch rum traders that he barely escaped with his 
life, and the effort was abandoned. 1 

Forty years subsequent to this, 1795, Daniel Thatcher, of the 
Presbytery of Orange, 1ST. J., under a commission from the General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, passed through this part 
of the country, seeking out its scattered families and preaching as 
he had opportunity. In 1798, Asa Hilly er of the same Presbytery, 
and pastor at Orange, performed similar service in this vicinity. 
Though confining his labors chiefly to Genoa and Aurora, he visited 
the new settlement here. He is the first Presbyterian minister I 
can trace to this spot, and it is claimed by his biographer that he 
preached the first sermon ever preached in what is now the city 
of Auburn. 2 He was the intimate associate and close friend of 
James Richards, one of the first professors of our Theological 
Seminary, and was present at the convention held in Auburn in 
1837, which resulted in the formation of the New School Branch 
of the Presbyterian Church. With a fine person, a countenance 
open and genial and of winning manners, Dr. Hillyer is describ- 
ed as a model of Christian and ministerial dignity, consistency 
and loveliness. 3 In a pastorate of thirty-two years (1801-1833), 
his church, at Orange, became one of the largest and most influ- 
ential in the State. He died in 1840 ; and his death called out 
the comment from Dr. James Alexander: "How beautiful is 
goodness ! Fierce orthodoxy burns as well as /warms ; but Christ- 
like gentleness sheds life all around it." 4 

The Presbyterianism of New Jersey, to which this whole re- 
gion is singularly indebted, was represented by still farther mis- 

i Schweinitz's Life of Zeisberger. 

2 Sprague's Annals of Am. Pulpit, Vol. Ill, p. 533. 

:•- Hist. Pres. Church, Vol. 1, p. 557. 

4 Forty Years Familiar Letters, Vol. 1, p. 313. 



sionary work in this immediate neighborhood. Aaron Condit, 
father of our late esteemed professor, then pastor of the church 
of Hanover, N. J., made a missionary tour on horseback, in com- 
pany with one of his deacons, having special regard to the fami- 
lies that had emigrated from his own parish. He came as far 
west as Aurelius, and reaching a small cluster of houses near this 
place after the day's ride, held an evening service, and administer- 
ed the Lord's Supper to eleven persons — a number suggestive of 
the original institution of the ordinance. While yet a licentiate 
of the New Brunswick Presbytery, Matthew LaRue Perrine, 1 one 
of the first three professors of our Theological Seminary, with 
James Richards 2 and Henry Mills, 3 all from New Jersey, itiner- 
ated over this ground, when as yet the continuous forests could 
only be traversed by the well trodden Indian trails or the freshly 
blazed paths of the first settlers. 4 

The fruit of these and kindred evangelistic labors quickly ap- 
peared in a religious awakening in this section of the State, des- 
tined to be remembered as the Great Revival of 1799. Among 
the more prominent missionaries immediately connected with the 
work, was Seth Williston and Jedediah Bushnell, both of whom 
labored in this county. On every side the good work spread. 
Places of meeting could not be procured large enough to hold the 

1 Dr. Perrine was born in Monmouth, N. J., in 1777, and graduated in 1797, at Nassau Hall. 
He studied theology with Dr. Woodhull of his native town. Under the several appointments 
of the General Assembly he labored as a missionary in Southern and Western New York. 
He was afterward pastor at Bottle Hill, N. J., and of the Spring Street Church in the city of 
New York. In 1821 he was chosen Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Polity in 
the Auburn Seminary, and remained in this position until his death Feb. 11, 1836. 

2 Dr. Richards was born in New Canaan, Conn., in 1767. He passed the freshman year in 
Yale College, and his subsequent studies were conducted by Dr. Burnett of Norwalk, and Dr. 
Dwight, then of Greenfield. He was licensed to preach in 1793 ; became pastor in Morris- 
town the following year, and in Newark, N, J., in 1809. In 1823, he was elected to the chair 
of Christian Theology in the Auburn Seminary, and died suddenly Aug. 2, 1843, having met 
his classes as usual on the day previous to his death. 

3 Dr. Mills was born in Morristown, N. J., March 12, 1786. He graduated at Princeton Col- 
lege in 1802. He was teacher for some time of the academy in his native village, and after- 
ward in Elizabethtown, N. J. He was also a tutor for two years in his Alma Mater. He 
studied theology with Dr. Richards, and in 1816 was ordained pastor at Woodbridge, N. J. 
In 1821 he was called to the Professorship of Biblical Criticism in the Auburn Seminary, and 
after serving in that position for thirty years, resigned on account of physical infirmities, 
and was made Professor Emeritus. He died at Auburn June 10, 1867, aged 81 years. 

4 Ms. Sermon of Dr. Mills preached at the ordination of Henry A. Nelson, July 29, 1846. 



8 

crowds who pressed to hear the word Dushnell reports the peo- 
ple every where atmofis to receive the Gospel. Williston writes 
of AureliuS that "the Spirit of God is poured out upon one part 
of the town." He sees the way prepared for the establishment of 
churches, and exclaims with more than his wonted enthusiasm 
— " that these lights were all burning and shining, what a lus- 
tre they would shed around our desert!" 1 This revival, occur- 
ring the last vear of the last century, determined the influences 
which si 1 aped the character of the infant communities then spring- 
ing lip over this region, and fixed it for a generation, while it led 
to the formation of churches within the field it so greatly blessed. 
We have now come in the order of events to the organization 
of the first church within the present limits of Auburn and Aure- 
lius (then one town), out of which ten years afterward came this 
church as its second colony. It was formed, Sept. 7, 1801, under 
the direction of Jacob Cram, a missionary sent into Western New 
York by the Massachusetts Society, with instructions to give part 
of his time to labors among the Indians. The original members 
were Samuel Colver from Egremont, Mass. ; Gilbert Weed from 
Greenfield ; Josiah Mix and Rebecca Mix from Greenville ; and 
Jacob Shaw from Norton, Mass. They presented letters from 
their respective churches and were organized into a Congre- 
gational Church at the house of Ichabod Wilkinson, in the 
south part of the town, the place since known as the Penick farm- 
and situated on the Poplar Ridge road. The house is still stand- 
ing. Articles of faith, twenty-four in number, and similar to 
those in use among the New England churches, were adopted. 
Fifteen names were added to the roll within the first year, viz : 
Josiah Taylor, Sen., Josiah Taylor, Jr., and Elizabeth Taylor, from 
Ballston; Joseph Thayer, Abigail Thayer, from Thetford, Vt ; 
Isaac Merwin, Sarah Merwin, Huldah Thorp, Sarah Thorp from 
Harpersfield ; Bethia Foster, from Hartford, Ct. ; Joshua Davis, 
and Jesse Davis, from Great Valley, Pa. Sarah Wilkinson and 
Anne Wilkinson were received on profession of faith. Gilbert 
Weed and Joseph Thayer were chosen as the first deacons. 



i Letter in Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, under date April 29, 1799. 



9 

It was incorporated as the First Congregational Society of Au- 
relius, May 21, 1802, at a meeting held at the honse of Henry 
Moore, about a mile from the Half Acre on the road to Union 
Springs, and nine trustees chosen, viz : Thomas Mumford, Henry 
Moore, Josiah Taylor, Hezekiah Goodwin, Moses Lyon, Jesse Da- 
vis, Joseph Grover, John Grover, and William Bostwick. These 
names represented different settlements within the town, in sev- 
eral of which small congregations had been gathered that subse- 
quently grew into churches, our own among the number. 

Mr. Mumford resided in Cayuga, and was one of the earliest 
settlers of the town. He came from the vicinity of Hartford, Ct. ; 
and was appointed surrogate of the county of Onondaga in 1797. 
He was one of the originators of the Bank of Auburn in 1817, 
and its first President. He was the largest donor to found the 
Auburn Theological Seminary, 1819, contributing to this object 
two thousand dollars, which was twice the amount of any other 
individual subscription. He united with the church on profes- 
sion of his faith in 1806. 

Joseph and John Grover resided at the settlement which bore 
their name, and now Fleming Hill ; the former was supervisor of 
the town from 1797 to 1801 ; the latter held the same office from 
1803 to 1807, and was also a member of the Legislature in the 
Assembly, for three terms from 1805 to 1808 ; and both men of 
character and influence. Three of the trustees were inn-keepers, 
who, in those days, were patrons of churches ; Henry Moore, whose 
house served the place of a church edifice until 1809, when a 
partly finished building was opened for public worship at the 
Half Acre ; Hezekiah Goodwin, whose tavern was a mile from 
the Half Acre on the road to Cayuga, and since known as the 
Hunt place ; and William Bostwick, whose inn at Hardenbergh's 
Corners, was as famous with travelers for its comfort and hospi- 
table cheer, as its keeper was respected for his public spirit and 
good deeds. 1 Jesse Davis was a substantial farmer in the south 
part of the town, and is remembered for the characteristics of rec- 



i The lot on which the Court House stands was his gift, as also were the spacious grounds 
of St. Peter's Church, of which he was one of the founders in 1805. 



10 

titude and piety, which have been perpetuated to the third gen- 
eration Josiah Taylor, who was originally from Norwalk, Ct., 
and fought by the side of his four brothers in the Revolutionary 
war, also represented the south part of the town, while Moses 
Lyon resided near the Half Acre. 

In the sun nner of 1801, and before the church was formed, 
David Higgins then pastor at North Lyme, Ct., visited Aurelius 
during a brief missionary service of the Association of Connecti- 
cut ; and the following spring, May 25, 1802, a call was extend- 
ed to him by the church, with the concurrent voice of the socie- 
tv, to become their pastor. The salary was fixed at five hun- 
dred dollars a year. About the same time he received a similar 
call from Bloomneld, in this State, which he had visited in the 
same missionary tour ; but giving the preference to Aurelius, he 
removed here in the summer of 1802 with his family, consisting 
of his wife and seven children, the youngest of them still a babe? 
and a favorite house servant, Mercy Atwell, who afterward had 
the good fortune to marry a son of Deacon Thayer — in all ten 
persons, and no small contribution to a new settlement. The jour- 
ney was accomplished in a large covered wagon which also con- 
tained some necessary furniture and provisions, and required as 
many days as it now takes hours to traverse the same distance. 
Moses Lyon had driven his team all the way to North Lj^me to 
aid in removing the household goods. On arriving at Cayuga, 
they found that the house provided for their reception by Mr. 
Mumford was filled with tenants, and that he with his family 
was absent on a visit among his Connecticut friends. They se- 
cured, however, a small building, with a single room and a loft, 
which had been used as a printing office. This barely afforded 
them shelter, and obliged them to extemporise conveniences for 
the ordinary housework, as cooking and washing on the shore of 
the lake in primitive style for a few days, until the new house of 
Henry Moore was so far completed as to afford -them ample ac- 
commodations. 

The installation of Mr. Higgins occurred October 6th of the 
same year (1802) by a council composed of five Congregational 



11 

and two Presbyterian ministers, with delegates from twelve 
churches. 1 

The moderator of the council was Jedediah Chapman, who, 
while pastor at Orange, N. J., the predecessor of Dr. Hilly er, he- 
fore mentioned, from 1766 to 1800, warmly espoused the cause 
of the Colonies in the struggle for Independence ; and such was 
the hatred which his patriotism evoked from the loyalists, that at 
times his life was in danger. He was now pastor at Geneva, giv- 
ing one half of his time to missionary service under appointment 
of the General Assembly. The other ministers of the council 
were Seth Williston, who acted as scribe ; John Lindsley, Joseph 
Grover, Reuben Parmlee, Joshua Leonard, Timothy Field. 

Ail its proceedings were conducted with marked deliberation. 
Though the pastor elect had for fifteen years served a staid New 
England congregation, and in a region noted then as now for its 
intelligence and as the nursery of distinguished men in the public 
service ; and came with the emphatic endorsement of the Middle- 
sex Consociation, of which he was a member, of his standing 
among the ministers and churches of Connecticut, and likewise 
armed with private testimonials to the same effect, all of which 
were read before the council, he was nevertheless subjected to as 
rigid an examination, both in experimental religion and systemat- 
ic divinity, as if he had been on his first trial for licensure. The 
council being satisfied with his testimonials and examinations, 
voted to proceed with his 'installation agreeably to the request of 
the church. The confession of faith and covenant adopted by 
the church having been read before the council, Mr. Higgins, at 
this stage, suggested a difficulty in his own mind as to the twen- 
ty-fourth article, which held that the government of each partic- 
ular church rested in the body of the brethren — a kindred ques- 
tion to that which perplexed a famous council of recent date — 
and after considerable discussion the church was advised, under 



i The following delegates representing churches were present, viz : Oliver Whitmore, Ge- 
neva ; Noah Crane, Bristol ; Joseph Brace, North Bloomfield ; Ezra Whittlesey, Lisle ; Har- 
vey Steel, Canandaigua ; Ahijah Warren, Scipio ; John Norris, Jefferson ; Caleb Lyon, 
Milton ; Eli Clark, Skaneateles ; Dan Bradley, Marcellus ; Hezekiah Freeman, Camillus ; 
Moses Basset, Cazenovia.. 



12 

the circumstances, to rescind the objectionable article, and a 
church meeting was called forthwith to deliberate on the sub- 
ject. 1 

The council re-assembled at nine o'clock the next morning, and 
the church having announced that they had stricken from their 
confession the article to which exception had been taken, it was 
voted to proceed to the installation at ten o'clock. The propos- 
als for the support of the pastor elect were now presented, and 
his compliance with the same. The Trustees were then introduced 
to the council, who on coming forward acknowledged, in pres- 
ence of the body, the instrument of agreement with Mr. Iliggins 
to have been executed by them — he also acknowledging the same 
on his part. 

With this cautious procedure at every step, all the arrange- 
ments for each part of the service having been previously arrang- 
ed, the council repaired to the grove just opposite Moore's tav- 
ern, where the congregation had already assembled. The origi- 
nal forest trees had been trimmed and rough benches prepared 
for the occasion. It was a golden October day ; and this being 
the first installation service on that part of the Military Tract east 
of Cayuga lake, including the present counties of Cayuga and 
Onondaga, it excited an unwonted interest and attracted a large 
concourse of people. Each minister in the council took part in 
the exercises. 

The opening prayer was offered by Reuben Parmlee, who came 
from Connecticut in 1798, and was minister of that part of the 
town of Bloomfield now known as Victor. 

The sermon was preached by Seth Williston from 1 Cor. ix : 
14, " Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the 
gospel should live of the gospel." The council voted to pub- 
lish the sermon, which was printed under the title : " The tem- 
poral support of the gospel ministry a divine appointment; the 



i The article read as follows : ." We believe the government of the church ought to consist 
in the body of the brethren in every particular church ; but we conceive it to be the duty of 
the church to comply with the request of any aggrieved brother, to call an advisory Council 
delegated by sister churches." 



13 

scriptural proof of which is presented." 1 Mr. Williston was an 
indefatigable missionary in this part of the state and instrumen- 
tal beyond any of his co-laborers in founding churches, one of 
which at Lisle, Chenango County, he was then serving as pastor. 
After a ministry there of ten years, he was installed over the 
Presbyterian church in Durham, among the Catskill Mountains, 
on the fourth of July, 1810. I have, as a lad, the most vivid 
recollections of him, as he was often a guest in my father's fami- 
ly ; and later and more serious memories of him as conducting 
my examination for licensure, with the rigidness of a stern Hop- 
kinsian, through two entire sessions of the presbytery, and for 
several hours on the single point of original sin. He was the 
author of eleven volumes on theological subjects and of numer- 
ous pamphlets and tracts, continuing to preach and write until his 
death at the advanced age of eighty one }^ears. 

The " prayer of consecration " was offered by Joseph Grover, 
a venerable clergyman who had come from Parsippany, N. J., 
two years before, and was now preaching at Bristol. The mod- 
erator gave the charge to the pastor ; and Joshua Leonard, who 
came from Ellington, Ct, in 1799, to Cazenovia, where the same 
year he organized the church of which he was the minister, gave 
the right hand of fellowship. The charge to the people was by 
John Lindsley of Ovid, where he organized in the year 1800 the 
church of which he was then pastor. Of Scotch Irish lineage, he 
was as sound in the faith as he was indomitable in his zeal for 
the spread of the truth. He and the moderator were then the 
only permanently settled Presbyterian ministers in Western New 
York, and the only members of the council from our own denomi- 
nation. The concluding prayer was offered by Timothy Field, 
who studied theology with President Dwight of Yale College, 
and on whose recommendation he was called to Canandaigua, 
where two years before this, in 1800, he was ordained pastor — 
the first ordination in the Genesee country. 

Such were the beginnings of our history as a church ; and such 



1 The writer is indebted to Miss Myra Higgins of White Lake, Mich., for a copy of this ser- 
mon. 



14 

were, the men who laid the curliest foundations of religious order 
in this town three quarters of a century ago. 

In the meantime, the settlement which gave rise to this favor- 
ed city was already putting forth the promise of its future. Al- 
though, as 1 have said, Auburn had no part in the stirring events 
of our Revolutionary struggle, yet we may say that it was born 
of the spirit which gave the nation being, and has until now 
wrought in its life. The character of its founder, Col. John L. 
Hardenbergh, was of the stamp of that memorable period, and 
could have been produced only by the hardships, sacrifices and 
patriotic impulses of those eventful times. His family name is 
prominent in the colonial history of the State as early as 16-10, 
the date of the immigration of Arnoldus van Hardenbergh to 
New York, a free merchant from the Netherlands with a cargo of 
wares for the colony ; ! and from that date onward distinguished 
in its political and military annals. He had himself borne a part 
in the long and sanguinary conflict in which national independ- 
ence was won, entering the American army as early at least as June 
21, 1777, the date of his commission as Lieutenant of the Second 
N. Y. Regiment, and remaining in active service until the close 
of the war. He was for a time on Washington's staff ; and two 
years after his first commission, had a command in the expedition 
under Sullivan against the Senecas and Cayugas, and kept a detail- 
ed journal of the campaign which is still preserved in manuscript. 
He thus gained, as a soldier, the first personal knowledge of this 
part of the country, but more particularly ten }^ears afterward as 
one of State surveyors of the military tract reserved for bounty 
lands. This was in the years 1789 and 1790 — the Indian 
titles having just been extinguished by treaty, and before the 
most advanced pioneer had ventured to fix his abode in this 
vicinity. Thus lie passed with chain and compass over a 
large part of the territory through which, ten years before, he had 
marched with the torch and the sword ; and familiar as he had 
become with every portion of the ground, lie fixed upon this 
spot as combining more completely the natural advantages for a 

i Col. Hist. 



\ 



\ 



15 

large town than any other within his survey. Forbidding as the 
place was, with its miry swamps dark with hemlocks and flanked 
by sharp and broken hills, to the settler in search of good farm- 
ing lands, it struck his eye as a surveyor, for its superior water 
power, and so he characterizes it on his survey map, two years be- 
fore he came into its possession, as" a good mill site. " This was 
within lot number forty-seven, a mile square including that part 
of the city east of the line of North and South streets. The 
original patentee was Capt. John Doughty of the Second N. Y. 
Regiment, from whom it passed to Martin and Josiah Ogden 
Hoffman. The lands received by Col. Hardenbergh for his mili- 
tary services were located in Onondaga ; after disposing of which, 
he purchased of the Hoffmans lot forty-seven for one hundred 
and eighty pounds state currency, the deed of conveyance bear- 
ing date Feb. 16, 1792. The same year he received a commis- 
sion as Major in a state battalion including the district of Aure- 
lius, and the subsequent year (1793) was appointed by Gov. 
George Clinton one of the associate Justices for the county of 
Herkimer, which then covered this territory ; and the same year 
was designated as one of the commissioners to lay out and con- 
struct a portion of the Genesee turnpike. He had already built 
a log house on the present site of the City Hall when there were 
but three dwelling houses on the road between Onondaga and 
Cayuga Ferry, 1 and a rude saw mill farther up the creek ; and 
was making preparations to erect a grist mill twenty one feet 
square, which was completed in 1794, and stood near where the 
outlet crosses Genesee street ; and this was the nucleus of the 
settlement which naturally took the name of Hardenbergh's Cor- 
ners. 

Its principal rivals, for a while, were Aurora, first settled in 
1790, and made the county seat in 1799 ; and Grover settlement 
on Fleming Hill ; but neither the rich farming lands of the latter, 
nor the attractive situation of the former, nestling on the borders 
of Cayuga lake, could compete with the little stream flowing from 
the Owasco with its frequent cascades, each a mill site and des- 

i Col. Hist. 



/ 



16 

tined to be Lined with machinery, the products of which in this 
centennial year are not only contributing to the interest of the 
greal Exposition, but are finding a market in almost every part 
of the civilized world. 

In 17i>4: William Bostwick, a carpenter by trade, added a tav- 
ern, and Abraham Bristol a blacksmith shop to the conveniences 
of the place. The same year Solomon Tibbies, a soldier of the 
Revolution, and connected with the Sullivan expedition, built a 
log cabin on the west side of North street, and is said to have 
made the first clearing for the cemetery in that part of the city. 
He soon after became one of the settlers of Clarksville, and was 
long one of its most respected residents. The names of four of 
his family appear on our church register between the years of 1817 
and 1821, on profession of their faith. 

Noah Olmsted, who took an active part in the incorporation of 
this society as one of its original trustees, located in 1795 on 
lands now the farm of Charles Standart. He served in the war 
of 1812, with the rank of Major, and was distinguished for his 
skill and bravery. He nearly lost his life at the battle of Queens- 
town Heights, while reconnoitering the enemy's position. A can- 
non ball shattered the stump on which he was mounted, and so 
disabled him that he was compelled to retire from the service. 
He died in 1820. 

About the same time Elijah Esty, of Puritan ancestry, and his 
wife a descendant of the Williams family that came over in the 
Mayflower, emigrated from Roxbury. Mass., first to Westmore- 
land, N. Y., and from thereto this place with their two children — 
Sarah, (Mrs. Wood) who died a few weeks since after a member- 
ship in this church of fifty nine years ; and Joseph who became 
a communicant here in 1817, and afterward an elder in the First 
church of Ithaca, where he still resides one of its most venerable 
and esteemed citizens. Mr. Esty soon erected a tannery on the 
present corner of North and Seminary streets ; also a dwelling 
house near by, which is still standing, having undergone some 
changes to suit the times. He died in 1812, one year after the 
organization of the church, and the same year in which his wife 



17 

became a communicant. Her second marriage was with Major 
Olmstead, whom she also survived, and at the time of her death in 
1867 was about the last of the original settlers of Auburn. 

The year 1796 is marked by the formation of the first religious 
society in this vicinity. A colony of ten families from Gettys- 
burgh, Pa., had made a settlement the previous year about three 
miles up the Owasco, and at once organized a Reformed Protest- 
ant Dutch church, which subsequently took corporate form and 
title, Sept. 23, 1796, at a meeting held at the house of Col. Har- 
denbergh, who identified himself with this society in the faith 
and order of which he had been educated. A copy of his New Tes- 
tament and Psalm book in one volume, in the Holland language, 
is still preserved ; and bearing a corresponding date under his own 
signature with his army commission, it shows not only the signs 
of ordinary use, but the unmistakable marks of the exposure and 
hardship incident to a soldier's life. The same year (1796) he 
was married to Martina, daughter of Roeliff Brinkerhoff, one of 
the first two deacons of the Owasco church ; and the names of 
his two children, Maria and John Herring appear on its baptis- 
mal register in the years 1798 and 1800, under the ministry of 
Abram Brokaw. Col. Hardenbergh died after a brief illness on 
the 25th of April 1806, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and was 
buried in the North street cemetery with military honors. Mr. 
Higgins preached the funeral sermon from the Epistle to the Phil- 
ippians III: 20, 21, "For' our conversation is in heaven, from 
whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall 
change our vile body and fashion it like unto his glorious body, 
according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things 
unto himself. " The horse with the sword and uniform of the 
deceased officer was led by Harry Freeman, one of the Colonel's 
slaves to whom he had given his freedom, followed by a large 
procession, and presenting an imposing scene. Thus, fourteen 
years after the settlement of the place, passed away its pioneer 
and founder. He was a firm patriot and a brave soldier 1 in the 



i Iliis name appears on the Koll of Honor in the cabinet of revolutionary remains kept in 
Washington's head quarters at Newburgh. 



18 

nine when his country needed every hand and heart for its de- 
fence, and withal a genial companion and a kind hearted, 
generous man. He was not* always careful of his own interests, 
and was sometimes imposed upon by those in whom he confided 
its if they were as trustworthy as himself. If a neighbor wanted 
;i bushel or two of grain, he might be trusted to measure it him- 
self and render his own account. In this way and in others 
characteristic of him, he doubtless now and then lost pecuniarily, 
but they gave him a strong hold upon the better and larger class 
of his co-pioneers, and a leading influence at this forming period 
in our history. Indeed, Auburn owes very much to the spirit, 
foresight and enterprise of its founder. 

The year 1796 is also signalized in the history of the set- 
tlement by the building of the first school house, a log struc- 
ture on the west side of North street near Yan Anden ; and the 
opening of a school by Benjamin Phelps. Five years later what 
was known as the red school house was built on the southwest 
corner of Genesee and South streets. This was a frame building, 
and is noted in the annals of the church as the place where the 
first meetings for public worship were held under the ministry of 
Mr. Higgins, until David Horner built the Centre House, whose 
" long room " presented more ample accommodations. There be- 
ing no other congregation in the place,, it embraced all who prized 
religious privileges without regard to denominational preferences. 
It is a tradition among our Episcopal friends, that St. Peter's 
church of Auburn owes its early origin (1805) to an assault 
upon the liturgy by the Puritan pastor, occasioned by its use at 
one of the services when he was absent at one of his other ap- 
pointments in the parish, which at the time embraced four con- 
gregations, to each of which he gave a Sabbath in rotation. The 
story is quite probable when we bear in mind the attitude of the 
English church, as a body, during the Kevolutionary war, asso- 
ciating its liturgy in the memories of the patriotic clergy of New 
England, of whom Mr. Higgins was one, with British oppression 
and religious intolerance. There were individual exceptions, con- 
spicious from their rareness, of devotion to the cause of Independ- 



19 

ence ; but, as was natural, the weight of influence exerted by 
that church and its clergy was with the mother country. More- 
over the Episcopacy of those days was also associated with doc- 
trines and practices wholly at variance with Puritan orthodoxy 
and strictness of habit ; and more than all with a conflict of prin- 
ciples older than our Revolution and of which that was the legiti- 
mate result. I allude to the incident here as a striking illustra- 
tion of the spirit of those early times, when lines were sternly 
drawn and every inch of ground gained by sacrifice was tena- 
ciously held ; and which, judged of in view of their surroundings, 
serve only to awaken sentiments of gratitude, and a generous 
charity toward differences, that have happily ceased to excite 
aught else than a magnanimous rivalry in extending the cause of 
our common Redeemer. 

It may be well to relate in this connection another incident, 
one of several that have come to me of the same tenor, which 
puts the character of the excellent man to whose labors this 
church owes its origin, above much of the narrowness and bigot- 
ry, which we may believe were more common then than now. 
On one of his rides over the parish, he fell in with a zealous pio- 
neer missionary of another denomination, who shared in part his 
territory. As they met in a piece of woods, both on horseback, 
the good elder threw out the challenge after this manner : "I 
suppose, Mr. H., you think your church right and the Baptists 
all wrong ! " " 0, no," was the reply, " I think we are wrong too.' 1 
"Then why don't you reform?" "I would," said the Puritan, 
" if I knew where or how. Our churches are not like the Jewish 
temple, built perfect. They are formed, rather, after the manner 
of building a ship. The builder goes into a forest like this we 
are passing through, and selects his timber ; but when brought to 
the yard it has all to be trimmed and fitted to build up the com- 
plete fabric." 

It is evident that the time has arrived for considering the pro- 
priety of a separate church organization for this community. It 
had a population of about two hundred and fifty, and had taken 
(1805) the name of Auburn. Meanwhile the relations of Mr. Hig- 



20 

gins with the church of Aurelius were becoming unsatisfactory ; 
and in Nov. 1810 he tendered his resignation. In addition to the 
reasons of incompetent support and "a growing inattention to 
the word and ordinances," he assigns that of reluctance on the 
part of the people " to provide a house where worship can be per- 
formed and they can attend with propriety and safety." It appears 
that the Half Acre, being central to the four settlements within 
the parish, but without due forecast, had been selected as the site 
of the first church edifice. The building was enclosed in the 
autumn of 1809, and by a vote of the trustees opened for pub- 
lic worship in its . unfinished condition. It was allowed to re- 
main nn plastered and without a permanent floor, owing to some 
difficulties that grew out of the financial management of the en- 
terprise. Moreover a church had been formed at Sennett, 1806, 
which with the one formed in Auburn, changed materially the 
relative position of the site of the building, leaving it on the east- 
ern boundary of the Aurelius parish, with surroundings, and a 
name 1 by no means suggestive of pious associations. Nothing 
more was done to render the house suitable for church purposes, 
and it was sold to Hezekiah Goodwin, one of the trustees, who 
converted it into a barn, after removing it, and attached it to his 
public house. Subsequently the united congregations of Aurelius 
and Cayuga built a stone church during the temporary minis- 
try of Joshua Lane. In 1821, Medad Pomeroy, known and 
venerated in later years as Father Pomeroy, then just entered 
upon his long and useful ministry, was ordained pastor over the 
two churches, that of Cayuga having taken separate organization 
in 1819. The original church of Aurelius, owing to these re- 
peated subdivisions of its first territory, became in 1834 the 
First church of Springport, now located in the village of Union 
Springs. 2 

Two months before Mr. Higgins' resignation, the initial step to- 
ward a separate organization here was taken at a meeting held 



f Hell's Half Acre. 

2 Ten Presbyterian Churches now occupy the territory included in the original parish of 
Aurelius. 



21 

Sept. 17, 1810, at the Centre House, at which Bartholomew J. 
Van Valkenburgh and Moses Gilbert presided, and John H. 
Cumpston acted as Secretary. Robert Dill, Silas Hawlej^, Henry 
Amerman, Moses Gilbert and Noah Olmstead were elected trus- 
tees under the corporate title of the First Congregational Society 
of Auburn, which has remained unchanged, though soon after 
the church adopted the Presbyterian form of government. 

Major Van Valkenburgh was a patriot of the Revolution, hav- 
ing been in the battle of Bunker Hill, and several of the severest 
engagements of the war. He resided about two miles east of the 
village on lands received for his military services, and which were 
subsequently divided into farms occupied by his sons. His res- 
idence was the brick house still standing on the Walker place. 
In 1817 he became a communicant in this church by profession, 
which lie honored by a well ordered and consistent life, until his 
death, which occurred August 4, 1831, at the age of seventy-eight 
years. It is related as an incident of La Fayette's visit to Auburn 
in 1825, where he was received with the enthusiasm which every- 
where greeted him, that on alighting from the carriage at the 
Western Exchange, he at once recognized in the crowd on the 
piazza of the hotel, his old comrade the Major ; and rushing up 
the steps caught the veteran in his arms and gave him a hearty 
kiss amid the cheers of the multitude. 1 His grandson, Gen. Rob- 
ert B. Van Valkenburgh, whose record in the late war with the re- 
bellion was worthy of his Revolutionary descent, was appointed 
U. S. Minister to Japan under the administration of President 
Lincoln, at the special request of Secretary Seward, not more in 
recognition of his loyal services than as a tribute of personal re- 
gard for the memory of the venerable patriot whose name he 
bore. 

Moses Gilbert, the associate presiding officer at the formation 
of the society, was a farmer residing out of the village, towards 
Throopsville. His wife was one of the original members of the 
church. He became a communicant in 1814, and four years af- 



i HalPs History of Auburn. 



22 

terwards was chosen ruling elder, but, declining to serve, was not 
ordained. He died April, 1823. 

John H. Cumpston was an energetic business man from Scho- 
harie county in this State, and built the first store of the village 
on the east side of North street near Genesee. He took an ac- 
tive interest in the building of the first church edifice, to which 
lie was one of the leading contributors. His death occurred the 
year the house was commenced, 1815, and when but thirty-six 
years of age. 

Robert Dill, the first name on the list of trustees, removed 
from Newburgh to this place in 1806, and at one time was its 
largest landholder. He was moreover one of the most public 
spirited men of his day. His gift of five acres of ground secured 
the establishment of the academy in 1812, now the Auburn Ac- 
ademic High School. His active and useful career was cut short 
by death, as he was reaching the prime of life. He died Jan. 24, 
1813, in the forty-seventh year of his age, a little more than two 
years after the society was formed and only seven years after he 
came to Auburn, to the material and moral welfare of which he 
so largely contributed. 

Silas Hawley was from Paulet, Vt, coming here in 1803, when 
he built the first carding mill on the outlet, just west of Harden- 
bergh's mill seat. He also had a tannery on Genesee street, 
where the Baptist church now stands, and adjoining Jeffrey's 
chair shop where Brigham Young, the Mormon leader, worked at 
his craft. Though of defective education, he was a man of 
strong native sense ; also of industrious, frugal habits, and of act- 
ive piety. The first religious movements here were veiw niuch 
under his guidance. He was one of the original three male mem- 
bers of the church ; was chosen one of its first two elders, and al- 
so served as its first deacon. He removed to Rochester in 1824 ; 
was chosen an elder in the First Church, and took part in the 
formation of the Brick Church, of that city, as one of its original 
twenty-five members, and was one of its first elders. He died in 
Rochester Dec. 20, 1860. 

Henry Amerman first settled in Owasco, about the year 1798, 



23 

but soon after removed to this place, and opened the " Farmer's 
Inn," just below John street on Genesee. He subsequently pur- 
chased the tavern stand occupied for a while by Silas Hawley, 
and located near the bridge which crossed the outlet. 1 He is 
the only one of the men of this early time of whom I can speak 
from personal knowledge. It was my privilege to visit him sev- 
eral times in the latter years of his life, when he resided in an ad- 
joining town, and derive from him while his memory was still 
vigorous, much of the early history of the times in which he bore 
a prominent part. He was now the only survivor of the little 
company that first met for religious worship in the red school 
house, and remembered well the first service Mr. Higgins held 
there, which was at his invitation. He took a leading part in the 
establishment of the first Sunday school on this ground in 1817, 
and with special reference to the colored people, 2 having as one 
of the trustees of the school district been outvoted in his attempt 
to secure for this class the privileges of the common school. He 
was one of the most interesting old men I ever met, bright, cheer- 
iful and full of reminiscence. He served this church in the elder- 
ship from 1817 to 1823, when he removed his residence to the 
town of Brutus, where he died April 1, 1872, aged ninety-four 
years. 

Immediately on the organization of the society, a subscription 
paper was circulated for the support of Mr. Higgins for one year, 
amounting to nearly five hundred dollars, from seventy-four sub- 
scribers, in sums from forty dollars down to twenty-five 'cents. 
At the same time, the trustees put in circulation a subscription to 



1 In an advertisement, under date of January 8, 1817, he holds out the following induce- 
ments to patronize his house: "From its central position, its large accommodations and 
his assiduous attention to the care of those who call upon him, he hopes to merit the favors 
of his friends and the puhlic generally. No noisy rabbles will be allowed a place in Ms house, 
whereby the rest of the weary may be disturbed. Liquors and other refreshments of the first 
quality will he furnished. " At a later date the public are notified that the sale of liqtiors will 
be restricted to travelers in need of the same. 

2 The following notice from the village barber, a colored man, in the " Advocate of the 
People, 1 ' under date of of Feb. 10, 1818, evinces in a practical way his interest in the move- 
ment : "Notice. The subscriber would respectfully state to his customers, that as he 
wishes to attend Sunday School, he will wait on them on Saturday until 9 o'clock p. m.. and 
on Sunday morning until school commences, and not after. Albert Hagerman. 



\ 



24 

purchase and enclose an acre and a half of ground for a burial 
plot, which was the commencement of North street cemetery. 

Mr. Eiggins, his pastoral relations with the church at Aure- 
lius liming been dissolved Jan. 8, 1811, was now able to devote 
bis whole time to this immediate held. For several years he had 
resided in Anbnrn, having purchased a place at the west end of 
the village, afterwards the residence of Nathaniel Garrow. It was 
nearly a year after the society was formed, before a church organi- 
zation was effected, the account of which together with the con- 
siderations that prompted the step appears in the records, over 
the signature of Mr. Higgins, as follows: "The propriety and 
importance of an establishment of this nature having been a 
subject of frequent and serious consideration among a number 
of individuals, who were solicitous that it might be effected; 
and having sought, from time to time, divine direction in a meas- 
ure of so great moment; having often conversed together on 
the essential subjects of experimental and doctrinal religion, and 
having agreed on certain articles of faith and practice to be 
adopted by them as members of a Christian church, the follow- 
ing persons did on the Lord's day, July 14, 1811, come to- 
gether at the time of public worship, openly acknowledge and 
mutually profess the succeeding articles of the Christian faith, re- 
new their covenant with God, and unite in a relation together, 
viz : Daniel Herring, Silas Hawley, Oliver Lynch, Eunice Hig- 
gins, Sarah Gilbert, Betsey Tyler, Kachel Parker, Sarah Hawley, 
Anna Cogswell. (Here follow the articles of faith and the cove- 
nant) After publicly propounding the foregoing articles and 
covenant to the aforesaid persons, and they assenting ; and ad- 
ministering baptism to Mr. Oliver Lynch, who had not before 
been baptized, they were declared to be a regular church of 
Christ, and entitled to all the privileges and ordinance of his vis- 
ible kingdom. 1 ' 

The following Sabbath, the Lord's supper was administered, 
and the names of Dolly Hyde and Mary Herring were added 
to the roll; and soon after those of Horace Hills, Hannah 
White, Rachel Phelps, William Brown, Catherine Van Valken- 



25 

burgh, Charity Rogers ; and the first year of its organization, the 
church consisted of seventeen members. In August of the same 
year, it was taken under care of the Presbytery of Cayuga, then 
recently formed and having held its first meeting at Auburn, 
Jan. 8, 1811. 

Mr. Higgins remained with the congregation here until Febru- 
ary, 1813, when he accepted a call from the church in Bath. 
His arduous labors and large usefulness for the eleven years of 
his ministry in this town drew from his brethren of the Pres- 
bytery of Cayuga, of which he was one of the original mem- 
bers, a warm expression of their regard for his eminent services, 
and personal regret at the separation. His pastorate at Bath con- 
tinued eighteen years, and at its close was crowned with a pre- 
cious revival which resulted in the hopeful conversion of some 
fifty souls. He continued to preach in the neighborhood as op- 
portunity offered ; and statedly supplied the church at Painted 
Post, which under his labors was blessed with a gracious out- 
pouring of the Spirit. After his removal to Norwalk, Ohio, in 
1835, now seventy-four years of age, he regarded himself too far 
advanced in life to assume another pastoral charge ; but owing 
to the scarcity of ministers in that region, he preached most of 
the time for several years longer, supplying the pulpit for stated 
periods at Norwalk and other places in the vicinity. Thus he 
remained in the harness to the very close of life. On the Sab- 
bath, June 18, 1842, having attended the morning service, and 
not feeling as well as ustfal, he concluded to remain at home in 
the afternoon, and, while sitting in his arm chair with his head 
resting on the study table, he expired without a struggle, or any 
of the ordinary signs of approaching death. He had passed the 
eightieth year of his age, and was in the fifty-fifth of his ministry. 
The funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Alfred Newton, pas- 
tor of the church at Korwalk, from the appropriate words : " And 
Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God took him." In a 
series of resolutions adopted by the church in that place, his 
death is spoken of as depriving the church of its counsellor and 
friend, and society of one of its useful and exemplary members ; 



26 

and it is added: " wo shall long remember his many affectionate 
counsels and instnicrK.nslM.ili from the pulpit and house of prayer, 
and we trust that his holy example may ever serve to lighten our 
path." As a Further tribute of regard, the church defrayed the ex- 
pensesof his Funeral and erected a monument over his grave, which 
bears this inscription : "As apreacher he was solid and instructive; 
as a pastor devoted and faithful; as a Christian consistent and hum- 
ble" His venerable widow, who had shared the toils and priva- 
tions attendant upon his ministry of more than half a century, 
and who survived him, was a descendant on her father's side of 
Matthew Gilbert, of the original colony of New Haven, and men- 
tioned by Dr. Leonard Bacon as "one of the seven pillars " of 
the first church and civil organization of the town. 

Mr. Higgins was a native of Haddam, Ct, born August 6, 
1761, and was fifteen years old at the time the colonies declared 
their independence. He entered Dartmouth College in 1781, 
two years before the close of the war ; but finished his collegiate 
course at Yale, where he graduated in 1785. While at Dart- 
mouth, he contributed largely to his support by his own labor, 
and was accustomed to say that the two years he spent there 
were among the happiest of his life. He studied theology with 
Drs. Smalley and Lyman, men of mark in their day ; was or- 
dained pastor at North Lyme Oct. 17, 1787, two years after his 
graduation from college, and continued in this pastorate until 
1802, when he was dismissed to enter upon his labors here. He 
was an earnest and active promoter of education, and took a prom- 
inent part in the establishment of the Auburn Academy, contrib- 
uting generously to its funds, and was one of the board of trust 
into whose hands the property was committed, before the perma- 
nent organization. He was a man of cultured manners, of com- 
manding presence, genial, and occasionally humorous, in social in- 
tercourse ; and was a fine specimen, both as a preacher and a man, 
of the culture and habit of the generation which immediately suc- 
ceeded the fathers of the republic, and by whose spirit of patriotic 
devotion and religious zeal it was so largely animated. His name 
is associated with the earliest efforts to lay here the foundations of 



27 

piety and intelligence, and cannot fail to be cherished by this 
church, which he gathered and organized, with gratitude and 
veneration. 

The church has now (1813) a roll of twenty-seven members, 
twenty-three of whom are women. Of the four men, besides Si- 
las Hawley, of whom I have already spoken, Horace Hills and 
William Brown are intimately associated together in the early 
enterprises of the congregation and its later history. They came 
to Auburn about the same time ; connected themselves with the 
church at the same communion season ; were chosen to the eld- 
ership the same year, 1820, and served each a period of ten years, 
until the Second Church was formed — a movement in which they 
may be said to have taken the lead. They were both prominent 
also in the establishment of the Theological Seminary, and were 
in its first board of trustees, the latter its secretary for a period of 
fourteen years. 

Mr. Brown came to this place from Catskill, a lawyer of repu- 
tation, after having been for a while in the ministry. He was a 
man of liberal culture, sound judgment, remarkable self control, 
of well known religious character, and stood in the front rank of 
the legal profession in this part of the State. He removed to the 
city of New York in the latter part of the year 1834, and united 
with the Bleecker street church, then under the pastorate of Dr. 
Erskine Mason. His death occurred at Brooklyn, March 10, 
1854, in the eight-fourth year of his aga 

Mr. Hills was a merchant from Hadley, Mass., and with an 
older brother, Eleazer, established here a business firm the year 
before the church was formed ; and it is interesting to note that 
in the several subscription papers for the support of the gospel, 
the erection of the Frst Church edifice, and the founding of the 
Seminary, their names are invariably together and always oppo- 
site liberal amounts. Eleazer Hills, like David Hyde, David 
Horner, John H. Beach, is to be mentioned as a representative of 
a class of sterling men who though not communicants, have until 
now given to the church, in the management of its secular inter- 
ests, their gratuitous and invaluable services. Horace Hills was 



28 

the president of the first missionary society formed in Auburn, 
in L815, composed mainly of young people, and which at its 
formation consisted of nearly one hundred members. He was 
for leu years the careful and accurate clerk of the session, and 
in many directions exercised a large and deserved influence in 
the social and religious movements of the place. He removed 
to Binghamton in 1840, and subsequently resided in Buffalo, where 
he died Sept. 18, 1873, at the age of eigthy-six years. During 
his residence in Buffalo, he became a communicant in the Epis- 
copal church, in the ministry of which his two sons 1 had entered ; 
but continued to cherish a warm regard for his earlier associa- 
tions, and a deep interest in the welfare of the two churches of 
Auburn with which he had been so closely identified. 

The congregation at the opening of the year 1813, has received 
some valuable accessions whose influence upon its spiritual wel- 
fare is to be felt in years to come. The academy, a fine three 
story brick building, has been erected on its ample lot. Auburn 
has been made the county seat, and the court house a respectable 
wooden structure of two stories with the jail and jailor's appart- 
ments on the first floor, is already built, offering in its second 
story a commodious place for religious worship until the new 
church edifice, which begins to be talked of, is secured. The 
immediate necessity, however, is a suitable pastor. A subscrip- 
tion has been circulated for the salary; and April 16, 1813, the 
congregation are prepared to extend a call to Hezekiah N. Wood- 
ruff, who had been for nine years pastor at Aurora, then in the 
town of Scipio. The pledge for his support is cautiously worded, 
viz: "That we will to the utmost of our power endeavor that 
the sums of money subscribed to this end, and such as shall here- 
after be subscribed for the same purpose, shall be collected and 
paid over to him agreeably to the stipulations contained in the 
call of the trustees." 

The pastor elect withheld his reply for some two months ; and 
in his letter finally accepting the call, after expressing his " aston- 
ishment at the providence of God by wdiich the event has been 

i George Morgan Hills, D. D., and Horace Hills, Jr. 



29 

accomplished," and the hope "that it may be for the divine 
glory," and their " mutual spiritual advantage," intimates his fears 
that the provision made for his support " will not be fully adequate 
to free him from worldly care and embarrassment." Nevertheless 
he is " induced to accept the call from the following considera- 
tions :" That the earth is the Lord's, and he giveth it to whomso- 
ever he will, and is able to supply all my needs : That the church 
and congregation are young and although in a growing, flour- 
ishing condition, yet many heavy burdens and expenses must be 
upon them which I should be happy to alleviate ; and also that 
I feel full confidence in the trustees that if at any time it should 
not be found adequate, they will make use of such means 
and devise such measures from time to time, to the utmost of 
their abilities, as will make me comfortable and happy, while I 
endeavor to convince them that I am willing to spend and be 
spent for them, and am not seeking theirs but them ; and should 
I be called in divine providence to attend to some worldly busi- 
ness, to visit my friends which are at a great distance, and which 
may require my absence a few Sabbaths, I hope that the spirit of 
love and forbearance will be exercised toward me; and that the 
God of love and peace which brought again from the dead our 
Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, will be with us 
and bless us through Jesus Christ. Amen." 

The installation took place June 22, 1813. The pastor elect 
preached the sermon according to an ancient ecclesiastical usage 
in New England, and received the charge together with the peo- 
ple from Levi Parsons, already some years at Marcellus where 
he spent a long and honored ministry. Francis Pomeroy, then 
at Sennett, and afterwards at Lyons ten years, and Seth Smith, 
who maintained his wise and useful pastorate at Genoa for thir- 
ty-nine years, were also present and took part in the exercises. 
It was somewhat more than a year from the settlement of 
Mr. Woodruff, and after a considerable discussion, that a change 
in the form of government of the church was determined ; and 
at a meeting held in the court house, August 15, 1814, "it 
was unanimously resolved to adopt the Confession of Faith and 






30 

Form of Government of the Presbyterian Church, of the United 
States, as the standard of faith and discipline." At the same 
time, Silas Ilawley and John Oliphant, who had united with the 
church the previous year, were chosen ruling elders, and were or- 
dained the following December — the former being also set apart 
to the office of deacon. 

M r. ( )li pliant was a native of the city of Carlisle in the north of 
England He removed to London in 1789, when about eighteen 
years of age, and soon after united with the church worshiping 
in Silver street chapel, under the rectorship of Thomas Wills. 
He often attended, while residing in London, the preaching of 
Rowland Hill, and was an enthusiastic admirer of the man, be- 
cause of his consecrated life and the doctrines he inculcated. At 
one time lie entertained the design of entering the ministry, as a 
foreign missionary. Soon after his marriage, in 1795, he changed 
his purpose; and becoming an earnest republican, and a mem- 
ber of the London Corresponding Society, fears for his personal 
safety added to his alarm for the country, led him to America. 
He came to Auburn in October, 1811, one month after landing 
in New York. Soon after coming here, he was greatly humili- 
ated in view of his departures from God, and passed through an 
experience which he describes, in his autobiography, as a second 
conversion. He found in Mr. Higgins what he had lost in his 
spiritual father, the good Mr. Wills, who died previously to his 
leaving London ; and became in his new relations here thor- 
oughly settled in the faith and practice of the gospel. So tender 
of conscience was he, and so thoroughly frank and honest, that 
he would promptly acknowledge any mistake or error he may 
have committed ; and such was his reverence for divine truth 
that he was ever ready with its application to his own case, and 
to the full extent of its claims upon him as a follower of Christ. 
He measured all preaching, both of doctrine and practice, by 
the Bible ; and this was eminently characteristic of his opinions 
and judgment of men and methods. On being asked what he 
thought of Mr. Finney, the first Sabbath the renowned evangel- 
ist preached in Auburn, he replied — "I determined to go with 



31 

him as far as he took the Bible with him ; and now he has killed 
me ! He has killed me with the Bible ! " 

He was, moreover, a man of simple habit, a tailor by occupa- 
tion, of scrupulous integrity, quaint in his sayings, some of which 
are current to this day, and of good report among all his neigh- 
bors. He was greatly beloved and trusted in the church as one 
of the most judicious and godly of its spiritual officers. The 
poor and afflicted were familiar with his kindness and sympathy. 
His experience of divine things attained uncommon clearness 
and depth; and his habitual frame was unworldly and spiritual. 
He has left the deep impress of his influence upon the church he 
loved so well, both in word and life, and the estimate in which 
he was held can hardly be exaggerated. While lingering on the 
verge of life, and certified in his own impressions of the very day 
he was to depart, his anxiety that nothing should be left undone 
by him for the good of others, led him to prepare addresses to 
his fellow members of the session, to the church, and also to his 
unconverted neighbors, to be read at his funeral. The request 
was complied with, in the presence of a large concourse of citi- 
zens, and gave a singular impressiveness to the occasion. He 
died Dec. 28, 1831, in the sixtieth year of his age. 

The chaneres that had occurred in the board of trustees since 
the society took corporate form, brought to its management such 
men as David Hyde, John Oliphant, Horace Hills and David 
Horner. 

David Hyde, who was here with his heroic mother as early as 
1808, thirty years after their escape from the horrors of the Wy- 
oming massacre, was in many respects the most influential man 
of the village. He was a lawyer of note, and in 1817 was ap- 
pointed by DeWitt Clinton first Judge of the county, and on de- 
clining the honor, it is said, suggested the sterling name of Elijah 
Miller, who received the appointment. In common with the 
friends of an educated ministry, in this locality, he was active in 
securing the Theological Seminary at Auburn ; and became one 
of its first trustees, and its first treasurer. Though not a church 
communicant, he took his full share of the burden, then resting 



32 

upon the few, of sustaining religious worship and teaching ; while 
there was oo man in the community who, both by precept and 
example, was more inflexible in upholding the old fashioned mo- 
rality, public and private; and this at a time in the history of the 
place, when such a stand was necessary to check strong tenden- 
cies in an opposite direction. His influence with young men, 
who were now being attracted here in considerable numbers, was 
most salutary, lie was universally respected for his stern integ- 
rity and positive character; and as a firm and fearless man, he 
will ever be a conspicuous figure in the history of those early 
davs. His death occurred in 1824. 

David Horner, who was a native of Ireland, is remembered as 
an excellent and enterprising citizen, ready to favor every move- 
ment for the highest welfare of the village. He was a devoted 
friend of education, and earnestly seconded the plans of Kobert 
Dill in founding the academy, contributing generously to its funds, 
and giving much personal attention to its management as a mem- 
ber of its board of trust. He was a man of no little polish of 
manner, courteous in his ways and upright in his life. He died 
in 183-4, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. 

It was in the year 1813, that the first attempt was made on 
this ground to organize Woman's work in missions ; and a so- 
ciety was formed auxiliary to the Grenesee Missionary Society, 
and accredited the first year with a donation of five dollars, the 
first contribution to the cause of missions from Auburn of which 
I find any record. Two years after, a young people's missionary 
society was established, and held quarterly meetings for the re- 
ception of missionary intelligence, with essays and addresses from 
the members. Its contribution the first year amounted to ten 
dollars and thirty cents, with an increase the next year to sixty 
dollars and twenty-five cents. Special interest was also mani- 
fested in the circulation of the Scriptures ; and February 22, 
1815, a year before the American Bible Society was instituted, 
Mr. Woodruff presided at a meeting held in the court house to 
form a county Bible Society, under the auspices of the Presby- 
tery of Cayuga. This organization has been maintained to the 



33 

present time as the Cayuga County Bible Society, which in 1865, 
celebrated its semi-centennial anniversary with appropriate exer- 
cises. A tract society was also in operation about this time, and 
was continued for a number of years, with a thorough system of 
family visitation and personal effort, productive of great good. 

But the principal mark of progress in connection with this de- 
velopment of benevolent activity, and taking into view the cir- 
cumstances of the congregation, its greatest achievement, was the 
building of the first church edifice, which stood on this spot for 
more than half a century. It was commenced in the spring of 
1815, the year Auburn was incorporated as a village, and was 
completed in two years at a cost of $16,000, without a dollar of 
debt on the building at its dedication. 

It would not be difficult to draw a picture of the village at the 
time the enterprise was undertaken. There were thirty stores and 
shops on Genesee street, then as now the principal business avenue, 
and the residences, at the west end, of Robert Dill, Nathanael Gar- 
row and Eldad Steel. North street had a single store, a tanneiy, 
and less than a dozen dwellings, the first of which and nearest Gen- 
esee, was occupied by Horace Hills. Then came the frame dwell- 
ing built by CoL Hardenbergh at the junction of Market and 
Franklin streets, in place of the original log house, and for a 
number of years the family residence. Near by, on the corner 
of Garden street, was the house of Dr. Joseph Cole, still standing 
on the same spot. Passing Seminary street, where stood Esty's 
tannery, we come to the residences of Nehemiah Smith, on the 
hill, now marked by the row of venerable poplars planted by 
him ; and of George Casey still farther to the north. There were 
scattered in Franklin street four or five houses, and a less num- 
ber in South street, while all beyond the line of Washington 
street was an unbroken forest. Including the six public houses, 
with room for permanent boarders without incommoding trav- 
ellers, and here and there a small dwelling not enumerated, we 
have Auburn as it was when the ground was broken for the 
church building. The lot, which, notwithstanding the expansion 
of the city, remains at its geographical centre, was the gift of 



34 

John II. Hardenbergh, as was also the larger portion of the ten 
acres comprised in the Seminary grounds. As the heir to the 
principal part of his father's original landed estate, he was noted 
for his Liberality, not only in gifts, but for his whole policy and 
dealings, especially with his tenants and debtors, many of whom 
wore of the laboring class struggling to obtain homesteads of 
their own. His Christian integrity, and unassuming beneficence 
perpetuate in honor the name indelibly associated with the ori- 
gin of the town. 

The plans for the building had been procured ; the sum of 
$8,000, half its cost, pledged to the trustees ; the corner stone 
laid with appropriate ceremonies, and the entire work at quite an 
advanced stage, when the pastorate of Mr. Woodruff was brought 
to an abrupt close by one of those unforeseen liabilities to which 
this relation is at all times exposed. As the only instance of 
collision between pastor and people in the history of this venera- 
ble church, and from the peculiarities of the case, its singularity 
is a sufficient reason for giving it prominence in this narrative. 

The request for the dissolution of the relation came from the 
congregation, and grew out of a bitter controversy, which greatly 
agitated the village, over an alleged homicide, the main point of 
dispute that divided public opinion being whether the man 
died of the blows inflicted bv his assailant or from the surgical 
treatment he received from the attending physicians. Mr. 
Woodruff became involved in the affair, at the first, in the dis- 
charge of his pastoral duty, visiting the family of the deceased, 
and at the same time assisting, by request, in the examination of 
the body after death. This led to his being a witness at the in- 
quest, and on the trial. In his testimony he happened to be mis- 
taken at a point decided by the court to be quite material ; and 
although, while the trial was in progress, he frankly acknowledged 
his error, it gave rise in the excited state of popular feeling to seri- 
ous imputations cast upon his integrity, for which, however, there 
was no just foundation. The controversy took, on several phases 
of excitement, and finding its way into the pulpit, the last place 
it should have invaded, hastened the crisis. In the paper sub- 



35 

mitted to the Presbytery, and signed by the prominent male 
members of the church with the five trustees, there is a full re- 
cital of the causes of dissatisfaction with the pastor, such as — 
"dry and unprofitable preaching, destitute in a great measure of 
energy and spirituality, lacking preparation and forethought " — 
" partizan zeal throughout the investigation of the judicial case " 
— " an affected display of physical knowledge with positive and 
dogmatic swearing on the trial " — and " preaching on the subse- 
quent Sabbath in a spirit of wounded pride, and in a manner which 
implied a censure upon the court, the jury and the witnesses." 
For these and like reasons, it is alleged that " the influence of the 
pastor, with his usefulness, has so far declined, that his dismission 
has become expedient." The Presbytery, after the examination 
of a number of witnesses, and a patient hearing of the case dur- 
ing a three days' session of the body, acceded to the request, 
August 29, 1816, on the ground of expediency, with a special 
minute, " that this action in no way affected the ministerial in- 
tegrity of the retiring pastor." This was doubtless the wise 
course, all things considered ; although at a later date, when the 
passions of the hour had subsided, it was plain to see and easier 
to acknowledge, the wrong on both sides. It is due alike to the 
history of this singular affair, and the ingenuous disposition of 
the man, to state that Father Oliphant, who was active in the 
movement against the pastor, subsequently took occassion to say 
that although prompted at the time by what he regarded as the 
true interest, he had nevertheless " acted in an unbecoming spirit." 
Mr. Woodruff was soon after installed over the two churches 
of Herkimer and Little Falls. He was a native of Farmington, 
Ct., born in 1762, and received his education at Yale College, from 
which he was graduated in 1784. He was first settled in Ston- 
ington, Ct, where he was ordained pastor, July 2, 1789, eighty- 
seven years ago this day. Coming into this region as early as 
1804-, and after an experience of nearly twenty years in the min- 
istry, he took a leading part in ecclesiastical movements and was 
held in high esteem by his ministerial brethren. His published 
sermons evince his ability and thoroughness as a preacher, and 



36 

but for the unfortunate incident connected with his dismission, 
his entire record is that of a judicious, attentive and enterpris- 
ing pastor. Perhaps his conservative tendencies, more particu- 
larly in respect to revival measures, 1 would have proved less 
adapted to the coming responsibilities of this position, than to the 
work' of preparation by which his ministry here is to be judged. 
But, brief as it was, it proved a most interesting period in the 
annals of the congregation, which had now become settled in its 
polity, and with multiplied facilities, had fairly entered upon its 
career of prosperity. Moreover his pastorate embraced largely 
the period of the second war with England, during a part of 
which large bodies of troops passed through this village on their 
way to the frontier. This was also a favorite point for temporary 
encampment and rest after long marches. At times, this whole 
region would be thrown into excitement by the alternating fortunes 
of the war. The capture and burning of Buffalo spread terror 
through this part of the State. It was in the dead of winter, and 
as the news reached Auburn in the evening, the wildest alarm 
prevailed through the night. The military were ordered out, and 
prominent citizens hastened through the village collecting arms 
and ammunition ; and the next morning two hundred men un- 
der command of Capt. Henry Amerman, were on the march to- 
ward Canandaigua in expectation of encountering the British 
who were reported on their way for the interior. It proved oth- 
erwise, and the company returned without meeting the enemy ; 
but the turmoils and alarms incident to war continued to prevail 
until the return of peace. Under such conditions, and among a 
population of scarcely more than one thousand souls, it is rather 
a matter of surprise that so much was accomplished in the short 
time of Mr. Woodruff's pastorate. He remained in the active 
labors of the ministry for seventeen years after closing his work 
here; and died at Oneida, August 11, 1833, aged seventy-one 
years. 

i This remark is based upon a fact communicated to me by an aged. member of the church, 
who united with it under Mr. Woodruff's ministry, to the effect, that during the great revival 
at Owasco in 1816, in the pastorate of Rev. Conrad Ten Eyck, he was cajeful not to identify 
himself with it, though occasionally present at the meetings, but always declining to take part 
in the exercises. 



37 

The church was now entering its sixth year, with fifty-three 
members ; and its new edifice, fifty -five feet in length and fifty- 
two in width, justly regarded at the time as a model of elegance 
and taste, nearly in readiness for a new pastor. The village was 
growing in numbers and importance, and much would depend 
upon the choice of a man to fill the position. No more fortunate 
selection could have been made than of Dirck Cornelius Lan- 
sing ; and as the event proved it was manifestly of the Lord. A 
ministry of eight years at Onondaga, attended with signal suc- 
cess, had already given the young preacher distinction in this 
part of the country. He was only twenty-one years of age when 
he began his labors in that place ; and within a circuit of twenty 
miles gathered his first church of thirty-five members. "Never 
was I happier,' 1 he writes in old age, " than when I used to skip 
like a deer through the woods from one small farm opening to 
another, to inquire if there were any in that bark covered log- 
house who loved the Lord Jesus." His youthful zeal was re- 
warded with such growth in spirituality and numbers, that in a 
short time a colony went out from his original congregation and 
became a vigorous church in another part of the town ; and be- 
fore he left that field for this, a large portion of the thrifty and 
influential families of the place were brought into the communion 
of the church, a fine house of worship erected, and a high school 
(mainly through his agency) established. 

At the time of receiving the call from this church he was tem- 
porarily supplying the pulpit of the Park street church in Bos- 
ton, just after the pastorate of Dr. Edward Dorr Griffin, afterward 
President of Williams College, and regarded as one of the most 
eminent and eloquent preachers of his day. Dr. Lansing had al- 
ready been solicited to settle in that city, and though reluctant to 
favor the invitation from Auburn, he consented to visit the church 
here, before deciding upon the overtures from Boston. The result 
of his preaching for a single Sabbath determined him. A pecu- 
liar solemnity attended the service and several conversions occur- 
red. This was an intimation of the divine will not to be mistaken 
by such a man, whose whole aim was to win souls to Christ. IJe 



38 

accepted the call, December 1816, to enter upon his work the 
following spring; and accordingly returned, arriving in Auburn 
March 3, 1817, the day lie was thirty-two years of age. 

The new church edifice, now completed, was regarded, the 
journals of the time inform us, as the pride and ornament of the 
village, which could now boast of fifteen hundred inhabitants. It 
attracts unusual praise. Strangers and travellers speak of it as 
one of the most superb churches in the State. Hon. Simeon 
Dewitt, the Surveyor General, has seen it and pronounces it the 
best piece of architecture of the Corinthian order within his 
knowledge. It is deemed worthy of mention in the chronicles 
of the day, that the great bell which weighs 1,250 pounds has 
been raised and hung in its proper position, without accident — as 
the raising of the frame of the belfry and steeple the previous 
summer had been the talk of the town as a notable achievement — 
while the good people are reminded that " the spot on which this 
stately pile now stands was less than a quarter of a century ago 
covered with immense forests, the abode of the savage." In- 
deed, we can hardly appreciate the estimate in which the attract- ■ 
ive village sanctuary was held, much less the sacrifice by which 
its walls were reared among the humble dwellings of the people. 
Its cost, if equally distributed, would have been more than ten 
dollars for each man, woman and child of the entire population, 
and at least an average of fifty dollars to a family. The elabor- 
ate carving of the mouldings, columns and pilasters with their 
finely wrought capitals, even to the emblematic dove perched 
above the pulpit, was the slow and careful work of the hand ; 
while every part, however hidden and obscure, was conscientiously 
finished. The building caught fire in the tower not long after it 
was dedicated, and narrowly escaped destruction. The fire was 
discovered before the flames had made much progress, and as 
the tradition goes, was extinguished with water boiling hot from 
the kettles of a hat shop directly opposite on the bank of the 
outlet. Dr. Lansing was absent at the time in attendance upon 
Presbytery. Elder Amerman had accompanied him, and on 
their return, first learning of the incident, hurried with the news 



39 

to the house of the pastor, who, on hearing of the narrow escape, 
was so overcome that he nearly fainted away. All honor to the 
fathers who put such esteem upon the worship and house of the 
Lord. 

The dedication took place March 5, 1817. The day was 
bright ; and as the doors were opened, half an hour before the ap- 
pointed time for the services, the crowd that had gathered out- 
side immediately filled the house. Dr. Lansing offered the 
prayer ; and preached the sermon from 1 Kings, VIII : 27 : "But 
will God indeed dwell with men upon the earth ? Behold the 
heaven of heavens cannot contain thee ; how much less this 
house that I have builded." The discourse was published and 
contained such passages as the following : " Consequences of 
awful moment to our present and everlasting happiness — conse- 
quences, my bretheren, in which we this day are deeply inter- 
ested, stand connected with every place devoted to the worship 
of Grod. The truths which from time to time will be taught in 
this house will be forming our characters either for happiness 
and heaven, or hell and misery. The redemption which is in 
Jesus Christ will here be offered to you ; and it cannot be re- 
jected but with infinite peril to your souls. Let then the first 
offering you bring to Grod be a meek and contrite spirit. Let 
your hearts rise in pure and fervent devotion to that Infinite Be- 
ing, to whose honor and for whose worship, you have with so 
much toil and expense, reared this splendid and elegant edifice." 

After recurring to their past difficulties and trials, and recount- 
ing the reasons for " the exercise of undissembled gratitude, es- 
pecially for the union of sentiment and action which has marked 
the enterprise, and for the liberality of spirit that would do 
honor to any society with more extensive resources, all of which 
is from the Lord," he calls upon them " to ascribe to Him the 
glory, that He may open the windows of heaven and pour them 
out such a blessing that there shall not be room enough to re- 
ceive it." And concludes the whole with this petition, which 
has proved prophetic of the larger and better part of our history : 
"Bless with thy gracious presence, our Father, thy worshiping 



40 

people in this house. Appear for the conviction of sinners and 
the consolation of thy friends; and in the great day of adjudi- 
cation let it he known that a multitude of sinners have been 
born in this house to immortal glory." Thus was struck the key 
note of the new ministry ; while the rapid growth of the congre- 
gation in numbers and spiritual power dates from the occupancy 
of its first house of worship, six years after trie church was 
formed. 

The installation, preceded by a day of fasting and prayer, oc- 
curred on the 23d of the following April. The sermon was 
preached by the pastor's father-in-law, Caleb Alexander, 1 then 
principal of the academy at Onondaga. 

The installing prayer was offered by Samuel Parker 2 of Dan- 
by, K Y. The pastor received his charge from William Wisner, 
then at the commencement of his blessed ministry in Ithaca, and 
now one of the most honored names among the fathers of saintly 
memory. The charge to the people was given by Jeptha Poole 
of Brutus. 

On the first Sabbath in May, and the second of the new pas- 
torate, occurred the communion, when forty-five persons, consti- 
tuting the entire membership at the time, partook of the Lord's 



i Mr. Alexander was of Scotch ancestry ; born in Northfield, Mass., in 1755; graduated from 
Yale College in 1777. In 1801 he came in to Western New York as a missionary of the Massa- 
chusetts Society, and divided his labors with the three churches of Salisbury, Norway and Fair- 
field. In the latter place he established an academy of which he subsequently became principal. 
He was influential in founding Hamilton College ; was also one of the original and earnest 
friends of our Theological Seminary, and in 1820 became its general agent for the solicita- 
tion of funds. He died at Onondaga in 1828, aged seventy-three years. 

2 Mr. Parker came of Puritan ancestors noted for their piety and decided character. He was 
born in Ashbridge, Mass., in 1779, his father having moved in 1776 on a rough mountain farm 
among the Berkshire hills. He was graduated at Williams' College in 1806 and at Andover Sem- 
inary with the first class that went from that institution; was settled in Danby, N.Y., about fif- 
teen years, when he went into New England as financial agent of the Auburn Seminary, at a 
period in the history of the institution when its existence depended upon what current collec- 
tions could thus be obtained. In 1835, '36 and '37, he made an extensive tour of exploration 
beyond the Rocky Mountains, under the American Board ; and the result was the establish- 
ment of several missions among the Indian tribes of that region. His great work, however, 
was in gathering congregations in Middle, Southern and Western New York, in the mission- 
ary service of the Massachusetts Society, in the earlier years of his ministry, and it is be- 
lieved that he was instrumental, directly or indirectly, in establishing more than one hun- 
dred churches. Bold and decided, full of energy and resolution, and withal of scholarly at- 
tainment, he did the hard and too often unappreciated work of a pioneer of the cross. He 
died at Ithaca in 1866, aged eighty-seven years. 



41 

Supper. The duty of personal labor for the salvation of souls 
had been impressed upon the heart of the church, and a confer- 
ence held to consider what could be done to advance the spirit- 
ual interests of the community. They had come to the unani- 
mous conclusion, that as the professed followers of Christ, and 
in view of the solemn state of feeling existing in the congrega- 
tion, they were called upon to make " a public declaration of 
their painful sense of unfaithfulness to the souls of their friends 
and neighbors." A document to this effect, prepared by the 
pastor and adopted by the church, was read at the morning ser- 
vice in presence of the congregation, as the members of the 
church arose and amid the tears of the entire assembly gave it 
their public assent. 

It became evident in the evening of the same day that the 
work of God in unusual power had commenced. Dr. Lansing, 
in later years, and after his large experience in religious revivals, 
was accustomed to speak of that evening as the most memorable 
of his life. Let him describe it to us in his own words : " There 
was a solemn joy, and a joyful solemnity alternately swelling the 
hearts of God's people, while their tears of sympathy and of 
hope flowed over the deep agony and the irrepressible emotions 
of their friends, crying out after the manner of Pentecost, ' what 
must we do ? ' They went weeping to their respective homes. On 
my way from the church, I found several persons leaning upon 
the fences, accompanied' by their friends, and weeping bitterly 
over their sins, and earnestly imploring the prayers of Christians 
on their behalf." 

The next morning the members of the church met, as if spon- 
taneously, and formed themselves into committees to visit from 
house to house. No sooner were the arrangements completed, 
than they were seen, two by two, passing from door to door, and 
communicating, as they met, the result. Here they would find 
one rejoicing in hope, and there another in the agonies of con- 
viction. In a single instance two of the visitors, among the first 
ladies of the village, were treated very rudely by a neighbor, 
who, as they began to speak to her of her spiritual interests, be- 



42 

came very angry and lost all self control, when the good women, 
after a few words kindly spoken, took their leave. Their Chris- 
tian gentleness, in contrast with her own rudeness, wrought such 
conviction upon \\cv mind, that in a few days she came out a de- 
cided Christian. Immediately she sought the forgiveness of the 
friends she had treated so ill ; and the joy of that meeting is de- 
scribed as akin to that of the angels over the repentant sinner. 
The husband, who was an energetic, opinionated man, a loud 
talker, and at times quite profane, was also brought to yield to 
the power of the truth, and ' : almost with the suddenness of a 
miracle, became the personification of meekness, gentleness and 
love." 

Thus the work went on. Christians were filled with unwonted 
zeal, and the town was moved with the presence of God. Reli- 
gion became the universal theme. Conviction was deep and 
pungent, and in most cases of conversion the work was short 
The converts were zealous and bold for their new Master, and 
the revival was of such commanding power as to control, for the 
time, every interest — public as well as private. 

Dr. Lansing in his semi-centennial sermon preached in 1856, 
and from which this account is largely derived, relates a striking 
incident connected with this revival, and illustrative of the time. 
Having in his early ministry been induced to unite with the Ma- 
sonic fraternity in the hope of thus gaining access to some whom 
he could not otherwise reach, and as he had recently come to 
Auburn, he was invited by the lodge of Royal Arch Masons of 
the village, at that early day a large and influential body of the 
onler, to deliver a discourse at the anniversary of St. John the 
Evangelist, which occurred on the 24th of June, and in the midst 
of the prevailing religious interest. The services were held in 
the church. As a part of the regalia, a richly ornamented cap 
was worn by each member of the order, with a broad band of 
blue ribbon across the front, bearing this inscription — " Holi- 
ness to the Lord." With a skill and felicity of adaptation for 
which the preacher was so remarkable, he took the inspired motto 
l'( >r his text : and with a solemnity which penetrated to the depths 



43 

of his soul, and with all the fervor of his characteristic eloquence,- 
he pressed the sacred words in all their spiritual import as the 
most open avowal that could be made of supreme regard for the 
glory of God, and urged that the church of Christ could not 
make a more public and significant profession of de\ T otedness to 
Him than this to which they were then giving their virtual as- 
sent. Reminding his brethren of the fraternity, that it was a 
time when the Lord was appearing in the beauty of his holiness 
and the power of his grace to convert sinners, he besought them 
to look honestly and seriously to it, that they did not disparage 
the gospel by a life incompatible with its holy requirements ; 
and as they were now celebrating the anniversary of one of the 
best of the gospel saints, they should cultivate the same disposi- 
tion and high regard toward the Lord Jesus as did their ac- 
knowledged patron saint, and remember that it only mocked 
Heaven to have " holiness to the Lord " inscribed on their caps, 
while their hearts were estranged from his love. With man}- 
such words, and with great sincerity and tenderness, did he en- 
treat them never more to wear this sacred emblem of devotion 
to the most high God, until renouncing all sin, their hearts 
were filled with his love. The apostolic boldness and affection- 
ate fervor of this appeal make the scene one of historic interest. 
It produced a profound impression, as we learn from the village 
papers of that date, and contributed greatly to the progress of 
the revival. Dr. Lansing himself says: "It pleased God to ac- 
company the discourse with peculiar power. Many were pale 
with fear ; while others wept under a conviction of their guilt 
and ruin ; and the result was the hopeful conversion of a number 
of the fraternity." 1 

Another scene occurred about this time, which illustrates a 
different phase of this remarkable revival. At an evening lec- 
ture which was very much crowded, the pastor was pressing the 
truth with his accustomed power and tenderness, when, in the 
midst of the discourse, many persons weeping and a deep solem- 
nity pervading the assembly, there was a wild scream heard 

1 Semi-Centennial Sermon. 



44 

which startled from their seats the entire audience. It came from 
ii woman, who had been observed for several Sabbaths as betray- 
ing in her countenance and manner a bitter opposition to the 
truth, and on one occasion, only a little before this, "had almost 
gnashed upon the preacher with her teeth." Instantly, and with 
a tone of authority he directed the people to sit down and not 
stir from their seats; and then requested the friends of the dis- 
tressed woman to remove her — the house in the meanwhile one 
scene of convulsive sobs and tears. In a few calm words, the 
people were desired to go quietly to their homes, and say as lit- 
tle as possible of what had occurred ; but that each in broken- 
ness of heart cast himself at the feet of Jesus and prepare to 
meet God. The next morning the pastor was sent for, and found 
the poor woman sitting on a couch in the centre of the room, 
surrounded by weeping friends. The moment her eye fell on 
him she implored his forgiveness in beseeching tones ; and on his 
assurance that he had nothing to forgive, and that the Saviour, 
whom both had abused, was merciful and would pardon, and by 
no means cast out any that come to him — she fixed her eye on 
the good man, and with a look of penitence which went to his 
soul, confessed how she had hated him worse than any creatnre 
in the world — worse even than a viper — and so bitter was her 
hatred, that she could have taken his life. With consummate 
skill and gentleness he succeeded in leading her thoughts away 
from himself to Jesus, whose love he assured her was infinite and 
whose compassion boundless, when they all knelt in prayer. It 
was not long before God graciously gave her the peace and joy 
of forgiveness ; and in due time she was received into the church. 
" She was ever after," says Dr. Lansing, "an affectionate, humble 
follower of the Lamb, until called into his immediate presence, 
to unite with the countless hosts of his ransomed ones in the cel- 
ebration of his heavenly praise." 1 

During most of the summer of this year (1817), the pastor 
held, each Sabbath, three services in the church, and a fourth in 
the court house for the convenience of those residing in the west 



i Semi-Centennial Sermon. 



45 

part of the village, presenting to the crowds attracted by his elo- 
quence, as few men of his time were able to do, the sovereignty 
of Grod and the dependence of sinners in harmony with the duty 
of immediate repentance, together with motives drawn from the 
divine character and government, the nature and desert of sin, 
the frailty and uncertainty of human life and the solemnities of 
the future world. Conversions multiplied rapidly ; and meetings 
of the session were held each Tuesday at three oclock in the af- 
ternoon through the months of June and July, for the examina- 
tion of candidates for admission to the church. 

The first Sabbath in August was a memorable day. Not less 
than two thousand persons, it was thought, gathered in and about 
the church, at the communion service, from all the country around 
within a distance of twenty or thirty miles. The house was 
densely packed ; and outside, there being as yet no fence about 
the building, wagons were placed side by side at the open win- 
dows, serving as a platform, from which large numbers looked in 
upon the solemn spectacle, as one hundred and forty-six stood up 
in the aisles and spaces about the pulpit, to make profession of 
their faith in Christ in presence of the emblems of his sufferings 
and death. A sacred awe rested upon the multitude as if pene- 
trated with a sense of the divine presence, and the stillness and 
order becoming such a solemnity reigned throughout the wonder- 
ful scene. The revival continued through the autumn and win- 
ter ; and the first year of Dr. Lansing's ministry the membership 
of the church increased from forty-seven to two hundred and 
seventy-two. 

I have thought that this first revival, among the many with 
which this church has been favored, was the more important be- 
cause of its educating power on the church, determining as it did 
for many years its character and methods of work ; and also be- 
cause of its influence upon the community at the period when 
its social and secular interests were most susceptible of right di- 
rection. That it had this twofold effect, there can be no doubt; 
and in this view its results, reaching far beyond its immediate 
fruits, defy computation. The church under its impulse took a 



46 

sudden and long stride in its progress, which it not only main- 
tained, bul from which it continued to advance, until in six years 
it reported a membership nearly as large as it lias attained at any 
subsequent time. Indeed this first revival was but the begin- 
ning <> I' a succession of similar refreshings with scarcely an inter- 
val of rest. They followed each other like showers in summer 
time, increasing the church in strength and numbers, and giving 
it. prominence throughout the country as greatly favored of God. 
Thus in 1818, the year following the large accession, thirty-eight 
members were added. In 1819 there was a farther addition of 
twenty-seven. In 1820, there was an accession of ninety; and 
in 1821, we have the still larger number of one hundred and 
nineteen— in the four years, (including 1817) four hundred and 
seventy-five. The next four years the additions reached barely 
a hundred in all, when, in 1826, the date of Mr. Finney's first 
visit to Auburn, there were fifty-four new members enrolled, all 
but ten on profession of faith. This was the first and only season 
of special religious interest during Dr. Lansing's ministry here, in 
which the aid of an evangelist was sought. It was moreover 
about the time when the Kettleton and Finney controversy was 
culminating ; and when a strong opposition had sprung up in 
this part of the State, and that from formidable quarters, against 
the doctrines and measures of Mr. Finney. He has left in his 
autobiography, recently published, an account of the mental 
struggle through which he passed at the threshold of his first la- 
bors in Auburn, in view of the obstacles which confronted him 
on every side and closed against him the confidence and Chris- 
tian sympathy of large and influential sections of the country. 
Thus hedged in, he tells us, he saw no deliverance but from God 
to whom he looked day after day to show him the path of duty and 
give him grace to ride out the storm. The vision came, while 
shut up in his room and on his knees in prayer, with a sense of 
God's presence which filled him with unutterable awe and trem- 
bling, succeeded by an unwonted uplifting of soul with the as- 
surance of help and strength for his work. All fear with all un- 
kinclness of feeling went from his mind ; and thus re-assured he 



47 

re-entered the field, leaving results with God. 1 Thus he passed 
the crisis of his life as an evangelist ; and though the revival here 
which immediately followed upon this experience, was less fruit- 
ful in additions to the church than several of previous years, some 
interesting conversions occurred and individual Christians were 
mnch quickened and established in grace. 

It was in 1817, and in immediate connection with the revival 
of that year, that the first steps were taken in Sabbath School 
work, followed ten years after by the establishment of the Prison 
Sunday School, the first in any penal institution in •America, if 
not in the world. The history of our own Sabbath School, so 
interwoven with that of the congregation, deserves larger space 
than can be given it in this discourse, and is now being prepared 
by the present superintendent, and will be given in another form. 

These earlier years are fraught with events the importance of 
which could hardly have been anticipated by the men who took 
part in them, gifted as they were with the foresight and energy 
to plan and execute far beyond the needs of their own time. If 
they made any serious mistakes the record of them has not come 
down to us. What they undertook they apjDear to have accom- 
plished ; and though the church was the centre about which their 
sympathies and labors gathered, these were by no means con- 
fined to its immediate interests, exacting as, at times, these inter- 
ests were of toil and sacrifice. Thus it was early in the year 
1818, that measures were taken to establish a theological semi- 
nary in this locality. It had been for some time a cherished idea 
with Dr. Lansing to secure for this section and the growing west 
such an institution. While at Onondaga he had entertained the 
project and sought to enlist the action of presbytery in its be- 
half, the same year (1812) that the seminary at Princeton was 
opened; but the current of sentiment favored the establishment 
of one central institution for the whole church, and this had de- 
termined the action of the General Assembly in locating the 
same at Princeton. 'But having now matured more fully his 
plans and anticipated the objections that might arise, Dr. Lan- 



1 Autobiography, pp. 193-194. 



48 

sing opened his views to a, few friends and particularly to sev- 
eral of the prominent and. liberal men of his congregation whose 
confidence and. co-operation he secured. The next step was to 
obtain the necessary eeelesiastical action ; and accordingly the 
Presbytery of Cayuga at its meeting in Auburn, January 1818, 
resolved that it was expedient to establish a theological seminary 
within the bounds of the Synod of Geneva, and that they would 
prosecute the subject before that body at its meeting to be held 
the following month. The proposition was at the first received 
with no little surprise on the part of many members of the Synod, 
and encountered considerable opposition ; but after a discussion, 
lasting two days, it was resolved to lay the matter before the 
General Assembly for its approval. The Assembly declined an 
opinion on the ground that the synod were the best judges of 
what should be done on their own field in an enterprise of such 
importance. It was determined by the synod after due discus- 
sion to establish immediately a theological seminary to be located 
at Auburn, provided that the sum of thirty-five thousand dol- 
lars, and ten acres of land should be secured by the citizens of 
Cayuga county previous to its meeting to occur in the winter of 
1819. The terms w r ere complied with and the location fixed at 
Auburn. It is not difficult to trace this result to the forecast and 
skilful management of Dr. Lansing, aided as he was by the pow- 
erful advocacy of such men as Dr. Wisner, President Davis of 
Hamilton College, and Miles P. Squier, one of the most earnest 
friends of liberal education in this part of the State. Much was 
due also to the congregation who steadily seconded the views of 
the pastor. Besides a large part of the lot, nearly half the 
requisite sum to be raised within the county, was its contribu- 
tion, and this only two years after the building of the church, 
which had required extraordinary effort. It is in such ways that 
a congregation attests a liberal and enlightened policy, in promot- 
ing the kingdom of Christ. 

It is more than a coincidence — it is history repeating itself — 
that just after we had completed our present church edifice, and 
by no common strain on our resources removed the last dollar of 



49 

debt, which hung like a cloud over our future, this congregation 
added a gift to the Theological Seminary of eighty thousand dol- 
lars, when its removal was threatened from the spot where the lib- 
erality of the fathers had located it ; and that as the amount origi- 
nally given by the congregation to locate the seminary here just 
about equalled the cost of the first church edifice, so the later 
sums it has given to sustain the institution and enlarge its per- 
manent funds, fully reach one hundred and forty thousand dol- 
lars, the cost of this building ; making an aggregate amount for 
seminary and church of two hundred and eighty thousand dol- 
lars, nearly one third of which, or more than eighty thousand 
dollars, is the munificent gift, in nearly equal amounts for each, 
of two of our number, whose well known names 1 need no men- 
tion on this occasion to be held in lasting gratitude among the 
sacred and joint memories of the First church and Auburn 
Theological Seminary. 

We may not estimate the advantages that have come both to 
the Seminary and the church through the intimate relations 
which have been maintained between them for these fifty-five 
years. But we may recall with gratitude and veneration the leg- 
acy which as a people we share in the memories of the great and 
good men who have occupied chairs of instruction in this school 
of the prophets, and seats, as worshipers together with us in the 
sanctuary and the circle for social prayer: Richards, Perrine, 
Mills, Condit 2 all from New Jersey, the State which gave the first 
missionaries to this field when a wilderness, all men of rare and 



i Sylvester Willard, M. D., and Theodore P. Case. 

2 Dr. Jonathan B. Condit was born in Hanover, N. J., Dec. 16, 1808 ; graduated at College 
of New Jersey, in 1827, and at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1830. He was ordained 
pastor of the Congregational Church of Long Meadow, Mass., July 1831, where he remained 
until 1835, when he entered upon his duties as Professor of Khetoric in Amherst College, con- 
tinuing in the same until 1845, when he became pastor of the Second Congregational Church 
of Portland, Me., until 1850, when he accepted the professorship of Sacred Khetoric and Pas- 
toral Theology in Lane Theological Seminary. From there he was called to the same chair 
in Auburn Theological Seminary in 1855, which position he occupied for a period of nine- 
teen years, receiving on his retirement in 1874 the title of Professor Emeritus. He supplied 
the pulpit of this church for a year after the resignation of Dr. Henry A. Nelson in 1856, and 
until the installation of the present pastor in November 1857; and witli one or two exceptions. 
occupied the pulpit annually during the pastor's vacation, including the summer preceding 
his death, which occurred January 1, 1876, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 



50 

special gifts for the positions they filled, and now all gathered to 
their fathers with every token of respect and honor the church 
is wont to bestow upon her most faithful servants. There are 
still others who have gone from us, and are yet among the living, 
who remember with interest their associations here, and are re- 
membered with unabated affection. And one still abides with 
us, who at the end of a long and honest service, gracefully re- 
signs, 1 in his old age, his task to younger, but whoever may fill 
the vacant chair, not to more faithful hands ; and now after 
nearly a quarter of a century in which he has made this church 
his spiritual home, is only awaiting the call of the Master to 
come up higher. . 

During Dr. Lansing's ministry there were chosen at different 
times, thirteen ruling elders — Henry Amerman in 1817 ; Wil- 
liam Brown, Horace Hills, Conrad Ten Eyck, in 1820; Lemuel 
Johnson, in 1821, who the same year removed to Buffalo and 
served the First church in that city for a number of years in the 
same office ; Kichard Steel, Jared Foote (who took part in the 
formation of the Second church of which he was also an elder;) 
Stephen Hamlin, in 1824; Theodore Spencer, Clark B. Hotch- 
kiss, Eseck C. Bradford, Myron C. Beed, Erastus Pease, in 1827. 
Of this number, and of the session as it was in Dr. Lansing's 
time, the only survivor is Kichard Steel, who, in his eighty-first 
year, still remains at his post in the active discharge of its duties, 
and is more thoroughly identified with the history of this church 
than any other person now living, having taken a prominent part 
in its events, especially in the revivals which have marked its 
progress, from 1817 until the present time. 

Of those enumerated above, two only died while in office, Con 
rad Ten Eyck and Myron C. Keecl. Mr. Ten Eyck was the son 
of Rev. Conrad Ten Eyck of Owasco, whose ministry in that 
place was signalized in 1816 by a revival of religion which in a 
single year added three hundred and fifty -one persons to the 
churches of Owasco and Sand Beach, then under one pastorate. 



i Dr. Edwin Hall resigned his professorship of Christian Theology, May 1876, after a ser- 
vice in this position of twenty-one years. 



51 

He moved to Auburn in 1817. Though abounding in deeds of 
kindness to the poor and of consolation to the afflicted, he was 
silent of his own works, ever preserving a humble estimate of 
himself. He was the most intimate associate of Father Oliphant, 
and of the same choice spirit. As the son of a clergyman and 
with a mind of more than ordinary quality, he improved his 
opportunities for mental culture not only, but for theological 
knowledge, and became possessed of larger and more thorough 
views of the principle doctrines of the gospel than was common. 
He was a friend of revivals and a diligent worker in them. For 
a while he was in active business as a merchant, but afterward 
taught a select school, as more congenial to his cultivated habit, 
and doubtless with the prospect of larger usefulness. He died 
Nov. 6, 1826, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. His last words 
to his now venerable widow, who has survived him almost fifty 
years, 1 were " God will do right" 

Myron C. Reed was a merchant of considerable experience in 
business, before coming here, and of the class largely reached in 
the revival of 1817, of which he was one of the converts. What- 
ever he undertook he did with his might. He was an ardent 
politician and an earnest Christian, equally sincere in his politics 
and his religion. He was always in earnest, naturally impulsive, 
with a strong sense of wdiat was just and right, and an outspoken 
courage which none could fail to respect. He may not always 
have ruled his own spirit, and doubtless sometimes did what a 
less impetuous spirit would have led him to avoid ; but his frank 
and generous nature would atone for an error as promptly as it 
was committed. He was as fearless in the rebuke of wrong as lie 
was mighty in prayer — a most useful man in his place, and one 
whose faults are quickly forgotten, but whose virtues imprint 
themselves indelibly on the memories of men. He died Febru- 
ary 3, 1843. 



1 Since the above was written, this excellent woman, so long identified with the social and 
religious life of Auburn, has departed this life. She died at the residence of her son-in-law, 
James R. Cox, August 16, 1876, in the eighty-sixth year of her age, having been a member of 
this church for a period of fifty-six years. 



52 

Stephen Eamblin, a fanner residing on the western border of 
the village was also a convert in the revival of 1817. He filled 
the office of deacon four years before his election as elder; re- 
moved to Seneca Falls in 1830, where he remained some two 
years ; and returning to this church was one of a small colony to 
form, in 1840, the church at Aurelius, 1 located at the Half Acre, 
of which he was also an elder. He was an amiable and trust- 
worthy man, of sincere and unquestioned piety, and died Septem- 
ber 6, 1856, having come to a good old age. 

Theodore Spencer became connected with this church by let- 
ter in 1823. The son of the eminent jurist Ambrose Spencer, 
and younger brother of John C. Spencer, distinguished at the bar 
of this State and in the public service, he naturally chose the pro- 
fession of the law, and for the years he was in practice, attained a 
most promising reputation. But his religious tastes and activi- 
ties, with a special fondness for biblical study, diverted him from 
bis chosen calling, and he really became a preacher before leav- 
ing the bar. He was accustomed to hold religious meetings in 
the outlying neighborhoods, besides conducting a large Bible 
class here; and so manifest was the divine blessing upon his 
work in these directions, especially in a single district of the 
town where some sixty conversions occurred under his labors, 
that he could no longer mistake the path of duty. This was in 
1828 ; and for some years he was an esteemed and successful 
pastor, until his health became so seriously impaired that he was 
compelled to retire from active duty. He resided in Lyons in 
1848, on the place occupied by his father at the time of his death, 
and for some two years was a member of my congregation in that 
place. I became strongly attached to him, and found in him a 
wise counsellor, a generous parishioner and a most valuable helper 
in a period of extended religious interest, when many, particu- 
larly among the young, were brought through personal interviews 
with him, into a clear apprehension of the first principles of the 
Christian life. He removed from Lyons to Utica where lie died 
in 1870, just after the semi-centennial anniversary of the Theo- 

i Disbanded in 1870. 



53 

logical Seminar}' which occurred in May of that year. He had 
greatly desired to be present on that occasion, as expressed in a 
letter addressed to cherished brethren with whom he had acted 
in other days, and which touched many a chord of memory in 
its closing sentence : " I feel' that I am lying at the river's brink, 
as Father Oliphant would say, 'waiting for the King's orders to 
go over.'" 

Eseck C. Bradford, a deacon four years and an elder fourteen 
years, was here in 1821, uniting with this church by letter from 
Cooperstown. He had a carding mill, and built the house in 
Grover street better known to us as the residence of the late John 
Porter. He acquired a large business in his specific line of man- 
ufacture, too extended perhaps for his ability to manage, and be- 
came embarrassed, as the best of men sometimes will, with diffi- 
culties and perplexities the most trying of which to him was, 
that any should suffer loss on his account. He was, however, a 
worthy man whose upright intentions and Christian honesty were 
not doubted by those who knew him best, whatever limitations 
such misfortunes hardly ever fail to impose upon one's influence 
with his fellow men. He removed to Illyria, Ohio, in 1841, where 
the church chose him one of its elders. His death occurred 
shortly after his return home from a meeting of the General As- 
sembly, which he had attended as a commissioner. 

Erastus Pease was a member of this church for forty-three 
years, uniting by profession in January 1814. As a shoe manu- 
facturer he had, as I have understood, the first prison contract in 
that particular business. He held the position of deacon for 
seven years previous to his service as elder. The names of his five 
children appear on our church register as proof of the fidelity of 
God to his covenant and the reward of Christian nurture. His 
son Lorenzo W. was converted in 1831, while a student at law 
in the office of William Brown, a year after his graduation from 
Hamilton College; entered the Auburn Seminary the same year 
of his conversion, and in 1834 went as a missionary to the Island 
of Cyprus, where he found an early grave. Four of the daugh- 
ters became the wives of ministers. Deacon Pease was an unas- 



54 

suming, reticent man, whose quiet ways and noiseless piety may 
have restricted, somewhat, the circle of his influence; but in the 
sphere in which he moved he was truly a pattern both of integ- 
rity and godliness. 

Clark B. Ilotchkiss, at an early day, was a most reliable and 
efficient church officer. He never faltered, whatever the load 
put -upon him, but in the parlance of the time " broke ground 
every step." He was a man of clear judgment, and positive con- 
victions ; and when he once took a stand he was as immovable 
as a rock. His usefulness in varied ways was marked and prom- 
inent, until business embarrassments broke in upon him, throw- 
ing him into a depressed mental condition, which sought relief in 
doctrines then coming into vogue, which promised the speedy 
and personal advent of Christ. Notwithstanding the cloud that 
came upon him, separating him from the church, it becomes jus- 
tice rather than charity to remember the decided stand he was 
wont in better days to take for truth and righteousness, and not 
measure him by the reaction of a strong will, if not the aberra- 
tion of a vigorous mind in its despondent moods. 

In these several sketches I have endeavored to present, as ac- 
curately as the materials at my disposal would allow, the men 
entrusted w r ith the rule and discipline of the church, its leaders 
together with the pastor, during a period of great spiritual pros- 
perity. Diverse in occupation, temperament and gifts, they were 
of one spirit ; and with equal fidelity, though with varied capac- 
ity, upheld the sacred interests committed to their charge. 

Dr. Lansing after having been twice called to the Second 
Church of Utica, at length resigned his charge June 16, 1829. 
The work of twelve years with the intense excitement and solic- 
itude which, at times, were upon him, demanded the relief that 
attends a change of place, though not absolute rest. This sepa- 
ration from a people to whom he was bound by so many cords 
of interest and affection was the most painful act of his public 
life and only yielded to, on the part of the congregation, as a stern 
necessity. 



55 

This was his longest pastorate, though it did not, by any means, 
prove the limit of his usefulness. At Utica, he found the church 
embarrassed by a formidable debt, and its edifice in need of re- 
pair, bringing into requisition first of all his well known tact and 
enterprise. Yet he does not lose sight for a moment of his rul- 
ing aim — the conversion of souls ; and in the autumn of the first 
year of his ministry there, a revival commenced which, continu- 
ing for some eighteen months, added two hundred and fifty 
members to the church. From Utica, where he labored nearly 
four years in an almost continual revival, he removed in 1833, to 
New York and organized the Houston street church with thirty - 
five young people, and left it in 1835 with three hundred and 
eighty members. It was the only church during his whole min 
istry that enabled him to support his family .from his salary. 1 His 
health failing, he returned for rest to Auburn in 1835 and re- 
mained here three years, during which, however, he preached in 
neighboring places, especially in connection with revivals. In 
1838 he removed to Illinois, where in eleven months he organ- 
ized a church in a pioneer settlement and secured for them a 
house of worship, the plans for which he prepared with his own 
hand. He afterward preached at Utica a few months, and at 
Syracuse for three years. In 1844 he supplied his old pulpit in 
Auburn for a year during the illness of the pastor, and enjoyed 
one more revival amid the scenes of his former ministry. In 
1848, he became the pastor of the Clinton Avenue church, 
Brooklyn, where his work of six years was crowned with the 
erection of a fine edifice, still one of the ornaments of that city of 
churches. His last sermon was preached in the Vine street Con- 
gregational church of Cincinnati, the pulpit of which he had sup- 
plied for fourteen weeks. It was the second Sabbath in Dec. 1856, 
and on returning to his home, he remarked that he had preached 
for the last time. For somewhat more than three months lie 
was confined with the disease that terminated his life. When a 
friend remarked to him that he had fought a good light, and 
kept the faith, and that his sufferings would soon be exchanged 

* Seiui-Centennial Sermon. 



56 

for ;i crown, be looked up reprovingly and replied quickly: "A 
crown ! a crown ! don't speak of it. If I may find some humble 
] dace at the f< >< >t of the cross, it is all I ask. Oh, the infinite mercy 
of Jesus Christ! " When his voice had entirely failed, a friend 
asked him if his confidence in the Saviour was still strong. His 
face gleamed with a heavenly radiance while he looked up as 
if he almost saw Him, and then bowed his head. One began 
to repeat the verse — "Jesus, lover of my soul," — when he took 
it lip with the same glowing expression, forming the words with 
liis lips, and like Stephen, looking steadfastly into heaven, fell 
asleep. Thus he died, at "Walnut Hills, Ohio, March 19, 1857, 
aged seventy-two years. He was buried with his fathers in the 
Golden Hill cemetery near Lansingburgh, his native place, from 
which fifty years before he had gone forth, bearing a name of 
ancient and honored lineage, and with the advantages of mental 
and social culture that wealth affords, to serve the church of 
Christ as one of Iter pioneer missionaries, and win a fame better 
than of ancestral honors, and gather riches more durable than of 
landed estates. 

It is not difficult to determine the secret of his power and suc- 
cess as a preacher and pastor. This was not so much in his 
gifts, rare and accomplished though they were, as in his complete 
consecration of himself to the direct and spiritual aims of an 
apostolic ministry. With an ardent and restless nature, and 
tastes which in youth sought gratification in scenes of aristocratic 
gaiety, preaching to save souls became his passion, and the so- 
ciety of the humble and devout of Christ's fold his delight. He 
well remembered not only the time, but the very spot where the 
light of hope beamed upon his soul. Such was his transport, 
that, to use his own description of the scene, it seemed as if the 
very heavens parted, pierced by a vast shaft of light to open to 
his vision the mercy seat of the Lamb of Grocl This occurred 
while he was a student in Yale College, and in the great revival 
of 1802 ; and so deeply engraven was the whole scene upon his 
memory that ever after in visiting his Alma Mater, he would go 
to the very spot in the college yard, to recall as far as possible 



57 

the melting emotions of that eventful moment when he turned 
his back forever upon the avenues of worldly ambition and 
sought the honor that cometh from God only. 

The contrasts presented by individual lives are often as striking 
as between periods of history. In the same class at college with 
Lansing was a young man, his opposite in temperament, but not 
unlike him in logical and metaphysical tastes, pure in morals, but 
cold and reserved in manner, haughty and imperious in spirit, 
and, thus early in his career, ambitious of the highest honors of 
the republic. He rose to eminence and unbounded influence in 
his native State and stood among the foremost men of intellectual 
might in the Senate of the United States, as the champion of Af- 
rican Slavery, and the chosen spirit of that organized and ag- 
gressive sectionalism which, when it could no longer control, de- 
fied the national government ; and at last drenched divided states 
in fraternal blood. In view of the life work of these two young 
men, graduating from the same college on the same day, I am 
willing to challenge a comparison between Dirck C. Lansing and 
John C. Calhoun, and without attempting to lift the curtain that 
conceals from human vision the awards of the last day, submit 
to the candid judgment of men, which was the nobler life, that 
of the ambitious statesman or the consecrated minister of Christ. 1 

It was but once my good fortune to meet Dr. Lansing, and 
then at a casual interview in which he introduced himself by 
name with a grace and frankness quite characteristic of the man. 
I never heard him preach : but tradition has preserved much 
of his manner, as has the press the matter of his discourses. In 
every way he was a man after nature's best model. In symmetry 
of frame, in eloquence of speech, in balance of the intellectual 
and emotional, in clearness of argument and fervor of appeal he 
had scarcely an equal among his brethren. 2 'Every thing spoke 



1 In the funeral discourse by Rev. J. P. Thompson, D. D., the contrast here suggested is pre- 
sented much more at length ; but as it was preached in 1857, the year of Dr. Lansing's death, 
the author could not anticipate the dire results, culminating in 1861, of the political creed of 
which Mr. Calhoun was the chief exponent. 

2 Historical Discourse by Rev. S. H. Gridley, D. D., at the Semi-Centennial anniversary of 
Auburn Theological Seminary. 



58 

as be kindled with his theme. His long, slender %nre, the grace- 
ful sweep of his arm, the flash of his black eye, the winning 
tones of his voice, all combined to rivet the attention and compel 
the admiration of his hearers. He could read a hymn with mar- 
velous effect ; and sometimes pausing, would turn the book upon 
its Pace on the pulpit cushion and comment on what he had read, 
often with the most feeling and touching emphasis. 1 

He was by no means a sensational preacher, as the term is now 
used, but had unqualified faith in God, in the power of his truth 
and the work of his Spirit. And this it was that made his 
ministry here and wherever he went so efficient. He was more- 
over as gentle and loving as a child, winning the young, and 
disarming opposition by his sincerity and unaffected humility, 
while there was born in him a courage and spirit of command 
that would have led a charge in battle. Had he been bred a 
statesman he would have swayed senates with the eloquence of 
a Clay ; or had he been trained a soldier, would have rallied the 
broken and flying columns to victory with the dash of a Sheri- 
dan. Still he found scope for all his varied gifts and attain- 
ments in preaching the simple gospel of Christ during a ministry 
of fifty years, which it pleased God to crown with more than 
sixty revivals of religion. 

We come now to another epoch in the history of the congre- 
gation. After such a pastorate the people will not be easily sat- 
isfied. Moreover the church edifice has been considerably en- 
larged, and a second church organized, lessening the member- 
ship sixty-six, and the congregation in a still larger proportion. 

i From the personal recollections of Lewis Gaylord Clark, for many years associated in lit- 
erary work with his brother Willis Gaylord Clark, especially in the editorship of the Knick- 
erbocker magazine, and both natives of this comity. He writes : "Dr. Lansing was the first 
really live preacher that I ever heard. Very crowded was the meeting honse of onr boyhood 
when it was known that Dr. Lansing was to exchange with our pastor. He was one of the 
most electrically eloquent preachers we ever heard— Bascom alone excepted. * * * His 
hymns were always selected with remarkable adaptation to the subject of his sermons. On 
one occasion a hymn written by my brother was sung in Washington Square (New York) 
by five thousand children, after having been read by Dr. Lansing. It was a proud moment 
lor the writer when he heard those innocent voices sending up to heaven in one blended as- 
piration the burthen of his lines. Dr. Lansing's cordial praise of those lines npon the spot, 
their execution by so many children in that beautiful square on one of the loveliest of early 
summer days, was one of the writer's most cherished memories during life." 



59 

But in a year after Dr. Lansing left, during which the pulpit was 
supplied by the professors of the Theological Seminary, a call 
was extended to Josiah Hopkins of New Haven, Vt. The cir- 
cumstances were somewhat singular. The name of Asa T. Hop- 
kins, afterward pastor of the First church of Buffalo, had been 
favorably received, though as yet he had not been upon the 
ground, nor had any negotiations passed between the parties, 
when it so occurred that Josiah Hopkins passed a Sabbath here, 
on a journey west to visit friends. The impression was favora- 
ble and it was ascertained that he would consider a proposition 
from this church. In due time the call was made, and the whole 
proceeding on the part of the congregation was as cordial and 
satisfactory as if it had secured to them Asa, instead of Josiah as 
their pastor. 

Dr. Hopkins was installed September 28, 1830. The sermon 
was preached by Dr. Wisner, still at Ithaca, Seth Smith offered 
the installing prayer, Levi Parsons gave the charge to the pastor, 
and John Clark the charge to the people. The population of the 
village, at this time, was a little more than three thousand, was 
supplied with five churches, and two of them Presbyterian. But 
within a year from the date of the installation two hundred and 
thirty-five were added to this church — four times the number it 
had given to form the Second church, organized November 1830, 
and which, within the same period, received an accession of nearly 
a hundred members. The next year, seventy were received into 
this church — still a larger number than had gone out to plant 
another church ; and this too in a population scarcely one sixth 
as numerous as that which surrounds us to-day. It is one of the 
most instructive facts in our history ; and prompts the question 
— if two Presbyterian churches made such vigorous growth side 
by side in a population of three thousand, ought there not to be 
ample room for the four of the same order we now have, among 
nearly twenty thousand people ? 

The revival of 1831, of which these were some of the fruits, 
was not restricted to place or measures. It filled the land with 
joy, and the churches unvisited by the gracious baptism were 



60 

the exceptions. In some localities, as in this, evangelists were 
employed. But similar results attended the means in ordinary 
use. The presence of Mr. Finney here, at the time, was quite 
undesigned. It so happened that he was passing through the 
village from Rochester, where an extensive revival had attended 
his ]> read )iug, with the intention of stopping over a day to visit 
his old friends who had stood by him in the days of 1826, and 
then proceed directly to New York. There were already the un- 
mistakable signs of a great work of grace apparent, and extra 
meetings were being held at least every other evening. Mr. Fin- 
ney preached a single sermon, and such was the desire on the 
part of many of the congregation, not members of the church, that 
he should remain, that a paper was hurriedly circulated by one 
of this number, and numerously signed — including some of the 
most prominent names in the community. It was after mid- 
night when the petition reached Mr. Finney. He had retired 
early, and was exj)ecting to take the stage at two o'clock in the 
morning, having paid his fare and secured his seat. He could 
not, however, resist such an appeal, and changing his purpose, 
consented to remain. There had been already a number of con- 
versions, and it is remembered that with scarcely an exception 
those who signed the paper became subjects of the work. 

Mr. Finney was now in the prime of life and at the height of 
his fame. Churches were every where open to him and very 
much of the opposition excited against him in 1826 had subsided. 
Many here who had arrayed themselves in open resistance to his 
measures then, were now friendly in their attitude. The opposi- 
tion was mainly confined to the avowed enemies of religion, and 
was both noisy and malignant. It is scarcely credible at this 
day, which witnesses so complete a vindication of this and other 
revivals — but such was the bitterness of feeling on the part of 
some, that it would have hardly created surprise in those who 
knew the temper of the men, if violent and summary measures 
had been resorted to for ridding the town of Mr. Finney. In- 
deed one man, who was converted and united with this church, 
subsequently made the acknowledgment that he had formed the 
purpose to take the life of the preacher. 



61 

The work, however, went on with resistless energy. Mr. Fin- 
nej preached twice each Sabbath, and on two evenings in the 
week. All the other labors in conducting the prayer and inquiry 
meetings devolved on the pastor and elders. Dr. Hopkins filled 
one of the three preaching services on the Sabbath. On the first 
or second Sabbath evening that Mr. Finney preached, such was 
the manifest power of the word that he called for those "whose 
minds were made up, to come forward, publicly renounce their 
sins, and give themselves to Christ." To his surprise, the first 
man that stepped out into the aisle was one who had exerted more 
influence than any other in opposition to the revival of 1826. He 
came forward promptly, followed by a number of those who had 
signed the memorial before referred to ; and that evening there 
was such a demonstration made as to control public sentiment ; 
and as Mr. Finney expresses it in his autobiography — " a wave 
of divine power swept over the community." 

During his stay of six weeks in Auburn, in 1831, Mr. Finney 
preached in no other pulpit than that of the First church ; but the 
results were by no means confined to this congregation. Many 
who ascribed their conversion to his instrumentality united with 
other churches in the vicinity ; and some of these, it may be 
said, became pillars, through years of faithful service and holy 
living, in their respective communions. The whole number of 
converts, it was estimated, reached five hundred ; and now after 
a generation has passed- away and with it the prejudice of the 
time, there can be no question of the great service then rendered 
to vital religion. I need not appeal to the few that remain to 
speak of those days. The silent and impartial pages of our 
church register furnish unanswerable testimony to the stability 
and value of the large accession of 1881 ; and I now repeat what 
I had occasion to say some years ago, as the simple truth of his- 
tory, that next to the cherished names of Lansing and Hopkins, 
in the earlier memories of the church, stands that of Charles G. 
Finney. 

There were other and general revivals in 1833, 1838 and 1840, 
with large additions and considerable increase in the intervening 



62 



way*. Thus in 1833, the number added was one hundred and 
two; in L838, seventy-six; in 1840, sixty-eight, and in all from 
L831 to L841, seven hundred and eight j-five ; which, by an in- 
teresting coincidence, is the precise number of the entire addi- 
tions to the church from 1811, the year it was formed, to 1831, or 
the twenty years embracing the entire period of its history ante- 
cedenl to the pastorate of Dr. Hopkins, these ten years of which 
may he properly styled its era of evangelism. 

Alter Mr. Finney, came Jedediah Burchard (in 1833) whose 
peculiar methods had provoked severe criticism in other places, 
and had been attended with high excitement. None doubted his 
orthodoxy as a preacher, holding strongly, as he did, to the doc- 
trine of the divine sovereignty, at the same time that he urged 
the duty of immediate repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, while every thing depended on the Holy Ghost in an- 
swer to wrestling prayer. He is said to have been quite unequal 
in his efforts, sometimes as solemn, tender and appropriate as 
could be desired ; and then at other times he would have his au- 
dience convulsed with laughter. He was really an actor, grace- 
ful in motion, impassioned in utterance, tragic and startling, at 
times, in attitude. 1 This was regarded by many as affectation, 
and, with the more intelligent, reacted upon the preacher. Not- 
withstanding all this, the church, making less of these things for 
the sake of the truth, sustained him as a unit. At no previous 
time had there been such thorough and systematic preparation 
for united effort in the use of whatever instrumentality it might 
be thought best to employ. Even before Mr. Burchard came, 
and with scarcely any knowledge of his peculiarities, the mem- 
bers of the church had entered into a solemn pledge to work to- 
gether without complaint or criticism, desirous only that the great- 
est good should be secured, in the salvation of the people. Hence 
the eccentricities of the preacher did less harm than mi^ht have 
been feared, while, doubtless, many were reached and saved 
through the truth, who otherwise would have remained indiffer- 
ent The revival was general and wide spread ; and it is the tes- 

1 Half Century Discourse, Presbytery of Rochester, by Kev. Charles P. Bu4, D. D. 



63 

timony of the time, that as large a number from adjacent towns, 
drawn to the meetings by the 'reputation of the preacher, were 
converted as united with this church. 

Five years afterward, in 1838, the pastor was aided by Mr. 
Avery, a less noted evangelist perhaps, but deemed more judi- 
cious, and judged by the number that then professed hope in Christ, 
not less effective. Of this number there are several that are now 
serving this and the Second church of this city as elders, or 
prominently connected with Christian work in other localities. 
Mr. Avery was followed in 18^0 by Samuel G. Orton, who was 
converted at eighteen years of age, during a revival in connec- 
tion with the preaching of Dr. Nettleton in Litchfield, Ct, his na- 
tive town. His studies in theology were with Dr. Taylor of New 
Haven. Although a settled pastor for many years, he abounded 
in revival labors, and was ever ready to give a few weeks where 
his services were requested in the promotion of the good work. 
He appears to have combined in excellent proportions the zeal of 
the evangelist with the discretion of the pastor, and is remem- 
bered here, as in many other parts of western New York, with 
gratitude for his labors of love. 1 

It is instructive in this review, to observe that in the diversity 
of gifts so manifest in these several servants of God, and the con- 
flicting judgments formed, at the time, of their modes of work, 
there was a remarkable uniformity of result not less in the spirit- 
ual than in the numerical- increase of the church. I have thought 
that the result might have been very different but for the stated 
ministrations of a pastor who taught the people knowledge ; and 
as their trusted and responsible guide, kept his hand firmly on 
the helm and never left his post in charge of another, heartily as 
he was wont to welcome all serviceable aid from his brethren. 
It remains a fact, however, that this church owes to those days 
of palmy growth, much of its character and influence, its sinew 
and strength, for a generation. There may have been things 
done that had better been left undone. Still the truth abides 
through the ages, that God uses varied instruments to advance 

J Pxmeral Sermon by Rev. Samuel D. Gregory, 1874. 



64 

his kingdom, and so orders the issue, that ''wisdom is justified of 
all lier children. 1 ' 

1 )r. I Copkins served the congregation for a period of fifteen years 
and eight months with characteristic fidelity and great accept- 
ance. Constrained by the loss of health, which a year's rest failed 
to restore, he resigned his charge April 21, 184:6. ' The church un- 
der his administration received nine hundred and seventeen mem- 
bers, live hundred and sixty of whom united on profession of faith. 
Of this entire number only sixty -two are now with us. The addi- 
tional elders in his pastorate were James S. Seymour in 1832; 
Abijah Fitch; Theron J. Pond, who removed to Kochester the 
year after his election ; Cyrus Lyon, who after a service of three 
years removed to Weedsport ; Nathanael Lynch, who recently 
died in the village of Phelps ; and John S. Bartlett, all of whom 
were chosen in 1836 ; and in 1843, Lewis Bailey, who removed 
the same year to Utica ; Joseph B. Hyde ; Horace Hotchkiss ; and 
Jedediah Darrow, who removed to the village of Fulton in 1847, 
where he resided at the time of his death, which occurred when 
he was about seventy years of age. Dr. Darrow had been a dea- 
con seven years before he entered the eldership. He was a man 
of liberal education, and very intelligent on subjects outside of 
his profession, of which he was an esteemed member. His age 
and experience, with an earnest consecration, justified the confi- 
dence reposed in him by the church and his associates in office. 

Mr. Bartlett was a younger partner in a large mercantile busi- 



i In his letter of resignation he says : "It is now almost two years since I have been able 
to perform all the duties of a pastor ; and although the congregation have manifested great 
kindness and liberality to me in my efforts to regain my health, I am impressed with the con- 
viction that I ought not any longer to prevent them from obtaining and enjoying the labors 
of a man who may be able to perform all the duties, as a pastor, which their circumstances 
require. It is from an impression like this, that after mature reflection, I am induced cheer- 
fully, respectfully and affectionately to resign the solemn and responsible office of pastor, 
which at their request I have held for more than fifteen years. In resigning my important 
trust among you, allow me to say that I am grateful to God that so much harmony and, as 
we trust, Christian tenderness and affection has at all times attended our efforts in attempt- 
ing to promote the great objects of the gospel; and especially that the blessing of God to an 
extent so important has rested upon those efforts. With regard to the manner in which my 
duties as pastor, while among you, have been performed, I have little or nothing to say. So 
far as it has not been in accordance with the spiritual and elevated principles of that gospel 
I have attempted to preach, (as none is perfect,) I solicit your candor, your forgiveness and 
your prayers." 



65 

ness at the time of his conversion in 1831. It is related of the 
senior member of the firm, who just then was quite out of tem- 
per with the revival which was making matters quite warm 
about him, that he resolved at once to dissolve the co-partnership, 
under the apprehension that as religion had found its way into 
the establishment, everything would 2:0 at loose ends. The bet- 
ter thought, however, took him, and lie determined to watch the 
new convert for three days, and see what the result would be. 
The first day he saw nothing that he could condemn, The sec- 
ond day passed, and he thought his partner in all respects a bet- 
ter man for the change so noticeable in all his ways : and it did 
not require the third of the allotted probation to convince him, 
that one might be "diligent in business,' 1 and at the same time 
"fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. 1 ' In brief, everything went 
on in that establishment, then doing the most extensive business 
in Auburn, the more smoothly for this new unction of piety; 
and not many days elapsed before the two were co-partners in 
godliness, that hath the promise of the life that now is and of 
that which is to come. Mr. Bartlett became a deacon the year 
after he united with the church ; and after four years in that po- 
sition, was chosen an elder in the twenty-eighth year of his age : 
served in that capacity fifteen years, and was clerk of the session 
at the time of his death. He was a man of thorough business 
habits, a devoted Christian, an efficient and beloved church of- 
ficer ; and his death was deplored as an untimely loss to the con- 
gregation and the communit}^ He died September 23, 1851, in 
the forty-fourth year of his age. Our communion table, so rare 
in design, and tasteful and elegant in execution, is a recent family 
gift, and in a comely way preserves his name and memory. 

Joseph B. Hyde was born in Mystic, Ct., July 27, 1807, and 
united with the Congregational church in Bozrah, at sixteen 
years of age, together with sixty others, as the fruit of a memor- 
able revival in that place. The year after, he went to Hartford, 
and became identified with the North church in that city, lien 1 
he entered earnestly into spiritual work, and was encouraged by 
his pastor in a purpose he had already cherished, of relinquishing 



66 

business to study for the ministry. He was, however, prevented 
by the state of his health from entering upon the necessary 
course of preparation, and with reluctance gave up the idea. He 
came to Auburn in 1880, and became an active worker in the re- 
vival of the following year. He gave himself with much ear- 
nestness to the Sabbath School interest, both in the church and 
the prison. He was chosen a deacon in 1886, holding the office 
until his election as an elder. He was clerk of the session, and 
its youngest member, at the time of his death, which occurred 
April 10, 1847. As the funeral procession passed along Gene- 
see and North streets, the stores were closed in token of respect ; 
and he is still remembered as a brother much beloved for the 
beauty of his character and the purity of his life. 

Mr. Seymour held the position of elder for forty-three years, 
and at his death, which occurred December 2, 1875, was the 
eldest of his associates in the session. He was a native of West 
Hartford, Ct,, born April 18, 1791, and removed to this place in 
1817, having received the appointment of cashier of the Bank of 
Auburn then just organized. In 1849 he was chosen its presi- 
dent, and died the oldest bank officer in the State. He was a 
faithful worker from youth to age, Habits of systematic dili- 
gence, doing everything in its time and place, kind offices, visits 
of friendship and of help, which had grown to be a part of his 
nature, remained with him to the last. He was a citizen of Au- 
burn for nearly sixty years, and was thoroughly indentified with 
its varied interests and enterprises, secular and religious. He 
has laid the foundation of a public library, and made provision 
for the establishment of a city hospital, by liberal benefactions 
to each object since his decease. He was a large contributor to 
the Theological Seminary, and was for many years in its board 
of trust ; also to the Orphan Asylum, of which he was a trustee 
and the president from its organization until his death. He was 
the generous patron of all the departments of church benevo- 
lence, and the steadfast friend of every good causa The kindness 
of the man spoke in his countenance and the tones of his voice ; 
and long will he be remembered in the community for the wis- 



67 

clom, firmness and integrity for which he was so universally 
trusted. He was as well known for his strict godliness, as for 
his sound honesty. He had, moreover, the equanimity and un- 
varied courtesy, entirely void of pretension, characteristic of the 
true gentleman. His sympathies were ever warm toward the 
needy and the sorrowing, and proved most helpful to numbers 
in prudent counsel and substantial aid, inspired in all things by 
the charity that thinketh no evil — as pure in speech as it was 
thoughtful and constant in its gifts. He was ever ready to es- 
teem others better than himself, and shrank with instinctive 
modesty from all mention of his good deeds. His memory is 
preserved in the affection of the church and the veneration of 
the community, as his name is perpetuated in the durable mon- 
uments of his public spirit, and far-sighted generosity. 

Dr. Hopkins had filled a pastorate of twenty-one years in New 
Haven, Vt, which covered the period of his ministry before his 
settlement in Auburn. Though not a college graduate, he re- 
ceived a good academical training ; and pursued his theological 
studies in part with Lemuel Haynes, the esteemed colored minis- 
ter of Rutland. He always cherished a profound respect for 
Father Haynes, who in turn felt an honest pride in his theologi- 
cal pupil. On one occasion, and after he had been in the minis- 
try some years, he preached for his old teacher ; and when, at 
the close of the service several members of the congregation ex- 
pressed, in the presence of the pastor, their satisfaction with the 
sermon, the good man laying his hand on the shoulder of his for- 
mer pupil, added — ;t 0, yes, I always knew Josiah would turn out 
a good preacher." Dr. Hopkins was greatly respected in Vermont 
for his ability as a preacher and his skill as a theologian. His 
entire ministry in that State was in the immediate vicinity of 
Middlebury College ; and in the esteem of none did he stand higher 
than with the faculty of that institution. A number of young 
men studied theology under his direction while there. He was a 
large minded, great hearted, godly man, genial in his intercourse 
with people of all classes, gentle in all his ways, full of practical 
good sense, and of courage ever tempered with discretion. He 



68 

could say without offence what from some other men, not more 
faithful to the truth, would create irritation and ill feeling. He 
was exceedingly fond of music, instrumental and vocal, and had 
withal a quiet humor and readiness of wit, that never forsook 
him. This served him in an emergency, when pastor at New 
Haven, of which some of us have heard him speak. He was 
coining one day from a neighboring distillery with his yeast jug, 
well replenished, by a short cut to his house across an open lot 
in some haste, as the good wife was waiting for the necessary ar- 
ticle, when he saw an old and well known toper of the village on 
his way to the distillery. There was no avoiding the issue. He 
must be seen with the jug under these suspicious circumstances, 
and perhaps his temperance principles, well known in the com- 
munity, would be compromised, at least in certain quarters. As 
they met in the path, face to face, the old inebriate only too glad 
of his chance to put a joke at the minister's expense, accosted 
him — " Ah, good morning, parson — a very convenient way to the 
still house ! I see 3^011 have laid in a good supply." "Yes," said 
the grave man — " won't you take a drink," at the same time of- 
fering him the jug. The thirsty fellow, not dreaming but it was 
the genuine article, and as yet without his morning dram, took in 
a full draught of — yeast, which he madly sputtered out, and 
cleaning his face as well as he could with his fingers, passed on 
without another word. The practical retort was too severe and 
too well merited for him ever to mention the circumstance. 

Father Hopkins is the first of my predecessors of whom I can 
speak from personal acquaintance sufficiently long to form an inde- 
pendent opinion. Neither brilliant in style, nor attractive in man- 
ner, he commanded attention by the clearness of his thought and 
carried conviction by the force of his inexorable logic. His zeal 
for sound doctrine made him intolerant of error; and the depth 
of his experience in divine things gave a spiritual savor and rel- 
ish to all his instructions, public and private. He was never 
afraid of the truth; but with his boldness in the gospel, he min- 
gled a simplicity and kindness of heart, that disarmed prejudice 
and won the general respect and good will. He was tall in per- 



69 

son, rugged in feature and of godly mien ; and when that smile, 
many of you remember, came from his heart to his face and lit 
up his countenance, like a touch of sunlight on some jutting 
cliff, it beamed with the beauty of goodness. With a physical 
frame hardened by earl}' toil, and a mental culture not common. 
apart from the early advantages of a liberal education, he, never- 
theless, sank under the burden of his protracted ministry here — 
a trial not less grievous to the people than to himself. lie 
continued, however, as his broken health would permit, to 
preach for limited periods to neighboring churches, in one of 
which he was successful in healing a serious division, and in an- 
other, the mother church of Aurelius, in Union Springs, was per- 
mitted to witness a precious revival which was as life from the 
dead. He soon after retired to the Water Cure at Geneva, where 
he died, useful to the last in kind offices among the patients, 
June 21, 1862, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. His remains 
were brought to this city, and after appropriate services in the 
old church whose walls had so often echoed the truth that fell 
from his lips, were borne by the senior members of the session to 
the North street cemetery, where they now rest amid the graves 
of many to whom he ministered in life, awaiting the resurrection 
of the just. 

The church had now survived the generation that formed it, 
Of its original members not one remained. Nearly seventeen 
hundred names had been enrolled upon its register, more than 
twelve hundred of' which were designated as having been re- 
moved by letter, or as having departed this life. Some had been 
excluded by discipline ; and the number remaining in communion 
with the church was four hundred and forty-six. 

The congregation, which had hitherto been under the ministry 
of men of large experience at the time of their coming upon the 
ground, now chose its fourth pastor, Henry A. Nelson, at the close 
of his preparatory studies in the Auburn Theological Seminary : 
and he was installed, July 29, 1846, within a month after his 
graduation. The relation then formed, and which continued for 
ten years, proved in several important particulars a transition pe- 



70 

i-kh I in the life of the church, in which, with some change of 
method in administration, all that was of permanent value was re- 
tained. It became the habit to look for enlargement in connec- 
tion with the regular pastoral ministration and its allied agencies, 
rail km- than to special efforts which had characterized some pre- 
vious years. At no time had there been such system and organ- 
ization in the use of the peculiar facilities afforded by our ad- 
miral tie ecclesiastical polity to develop the efficiency of the 
church. To aid the pastor in his work of supervision, the whole 
membership was arranged into twelve classes, corresponding to 
the number of ruling elders, and each class put in special charge 
of a single elder. At the same time the term of service of the 
elders, now divided into four classes, was limited to three years for 
each class, unless re-chosen at the annual meeting. This arrange- 
ment was intended to bring the congregation and its spiritual rul- 
ers into more immediate sympathy; and it is worthy of record 
that in the twenty -five years since this measure was adopted, in 
no instance has the church failed to re-affirm its original choice. 
A similar arrangement pertains to the functions of the deacons 
in their delicate and most Christian ministry to the poor. As 
another feature, and as a valuable educational influence, the par- 
ish library should be mentioned, now numbering over thirteen 
hundred volumes. 

Six of the present members of the session were ordained to 
their office under Dr. Nelson's pastorate, and eleven in all, viz : — 
in 1848, Sylvester Willard, Joseph Clary, Henry H. Cooley, 1 Dan- 
iel Ilewson, Thomas M. Hunt ; in 1853, Greorge Crocker,' 2 Israel 
F. Terrill, Harmon Woodruff, Franklin L.. Griswold; in 1854, 
James Hyde ; and in 1855, Greorge Underwood. Three of this 
number died while in office. 

Thomas M. Hunt was a native of Northampton, Mass., and 
made a profession of religion when he was sixteen years of age. 
He commenced business as an apothecary, (for which he was edu- 



i Resigned December, 1854, and removed his residence to Pittston, Pa., where he died Sep- 
tember 20, 1873. His remains were brought to this city for interment. 
2 Resigned 1866, and removed to Yarmouth, Mass., where he still resides. 



71 

cated) in Springfield, Mass., where he resided some six years : when 
in 1830, he removed to Auburn. He held the office of deacon 

in the church twelve years (1836-1848) and that of elder seven 
years, until his death. He also served the society as a trustee 
for eighteen years. In his earlier religious training, he was not 
encouraged to take part in the meetings for soeial prayer mid 
conference, the exereises of which were regarded as devolving 
more appropriately upon die older men; and consequently he 
found it next to impossible to form the habit in maturer years, 
much as he loved the place of prayer and communion with the 
people of God. But his life spoke as no words could have done. 
He was absolutely without reproach; was widely known for both 
godliness and honesty, and bore a character solid with the vir- 
tues, and luminous with the graces of a scriptural piety. He 
died October 26th, 1855, in the fifty fourth year of his age. 

George Underwood, born in Cooperstown, was three years of 
age when his father Amos Underwood removed to Auburn. He 
entered Hamilton College at the ao;e of fifteen and graduated with 

CO o 

the second honor in a class of marked ability. He evinced his 
regard for learning and his esteem for the college, in founding 
the Underwood Prize for the highest proficiency in the study of 
Chemistry. He was twice chosen to the Legislature of the State ; 
and was mayor of the city in 1854. He united with this church 
in 1855, on profession of his faith, and the same year was ehosen 
an elder. His professional attainments as a lawyer, his well 
balanced judgment, true humility, warm and cheerful piety, and 
consistent life singularly fitted him for the position which he was 
permitted so brief a time to occupy. Both as a civilian and as 
the attorney for a powerful railway corporation, he was governed 
by high moral and religious principles. In all his relations, he 
evinced a eharaeter in which the qualities of an amiable and gen- 
erous nature were happily blended with the habits of a scrupu- 
lous piety. He spent the winter preceding his death on the 
island of Cuba, in hope of arresting the disease which terminated 
his life. He died in this city, shortly after his return, May 25, 
1859, in the forty-fourth year of his age. 



72 

Tt was just four years to the day, that the next vacancy occur- 
red in the session, in the death of the venerable Dr. Clary, at the 
time its oldest member, lie was born in Conway, Mass., Dc- 
cember 18, 1787. lie studied medicine in New Hartford, and 
commenced its practice at the age of twenty-five years. He came 
to Auburn in 1812, one year after the church was formed: but 
fixed his residence at Throopsville, where for fifty years he was the 
principal physician. Although residing in an adjoining town, he 
was in full and active sympathy with his brethren in all meas- 
ures for the welfare of the church, and most faithful in the details 
of his office. Occupied as he was with an extensive country 
practice, as the favorite physician of all that region, he was reg- 
ularly in his place in the house of God, and punctual alike in his 
private duties and official obligations. lie had attended divine 
sendee as usual on the Sabbath, visited such of his patients as 
were most in need of his attention, when he was seized with fever 
and died the following week, May 25, 1868, aged seventy-five 
years. His remains were followed to the grave by a very large 
concourse of people, and the entire funeral scene was a memor- 
able tribute of esteem and affection for "the beloved physician." 

The accessions to the church during Dr. Nelson's pastorate 
number three hundred and ninety-seven. There was no large 
increase at any one time, but a steady and healthy growth, with 
entire harmony, and a mutual confidence and regard alike hon- 
orable to pastor and people. But he was needed in a more dif- 
ficult, and, as events proved, a more important post. The call 
came from the First church of St. Louis, and was pressed with 
earnestness, more especially in view of the interests of our own 
church in that section, and its relations to the question of slavery 
then agitating the country, and requiring firm and wise handling 
on the part of one occupying such a position. The congregation 
yielded its consent after a full presentation of the facts; and 
the pastoral relation was dissolved, September 8, 1856. The re- 
sults of Dr. Nelson's pastorate at St. Louis, including the four 
years immediately preceding our civil war and the entire period 
of the war itself, fully justified the large expectations which were 



73 

cherished at the outset of his ability as a pastor, and his wisdom 
as a leader ; and I only repeat, what is generally conceded, that 
to the influence of no other man is it more due that Missouri 
finally yielded to the measure of voluntary emancipation, and 
maintained her loyal attitude during the fearful struggle of the 
nation with rebellion. In 1869, Dr. Nelson accepted the chair 
of Theology in Lane Seminary, which he resigned in 1874, to 
resume the more congenial work of the pastorate. He is still in 
active service as pastor of the First church of Geneva, and hap- 
pily there is as yet no occasion to sum up the labors and charac- 
ter of his ministry, as has been done in the case of each one of 
his predecessors. 

I have thus endeavored to trace the annals of the congregation 
to the present pastorate, which commenced November 5, 1857. 
The nineteen years that remain form a considerable, and in some 
regards a critical period in its progress, as also in the life of the 
nation. Another opportunity may occur to resume the narra- 
tive ; but for the present it must close here, with the mention 
only of a few statistics of general interest. The whole number 
that have entered into communion with this church from the 
first, is two thousand eight hundred and eighty-live. Of this 
number sixteen hundred and eight were received on their relig- 
ious experience, and twelve hundred and seventy-seven from 
other churches. Ninety-five of its members have entered the 
Christian ministry. About two thousand and sixty have been 
removed by death or change of residence, and not more than 
one-sixth of the present membership of the church were in it 
nineteen years ago. The additions at that time had reached two 
thousand one hundred and thirty-seven. Of this number, more 
than two thousand have gone from us. There are scarcely sixty 
of those who united under the ministry of Br. Nelson, now re- 
maining in our communion ; not more than thirty-five of the 
nearly one thousand added under that of Dr. Hopkins ; and of 
the more than seven hundred received under Dr. Lansing, only 
seven are with us to this day. More than five hundred have 
passed from the communion of the church by dismission or 



74 

death in the last nineteen years, while the whole number received 
in that time, is seven hundred and thirty-two, of whom four hun- 
dred and forty-six united on profession of faith. The entire roll 
for this period numbers eleven hundred and ninety-six ; and the 
present membership is not far from six hundred. There have 
been but four changes in the board of twelve elders during this 
period — three by death and one by removal of residence. The 
church has had, in all forty ruling elders, fifteen of whom have 
removed to other places, and eleven have died while in office. 
Four of the existing number, were ordained, as follows : Albert 
H. Gross in 1860 ; Charles A. Lee in 1864 ; Henry J. Sartwell in 
1866 ; and Mortimer L. Browne in 1876 — all within the present 
pastorate. 

Of the thirty-four deacons, seventeen have at different times 
been transferred to the bench of elders. None have died while 
in this office. Those who have not been already mentioned in 
connection with the eldership, are Palmer Holley, from 1827 to 
1852; John I. Hagaman, 1827-1830; Albert Valcott, 1836- 
1858; John K. Hopkins, 1843-1844; Gilbert M. Milligan, 1843 
-1848 ; James B. Wilson, 1843-1845 ; Charles Hall, 1848-1851 ; 
Stephen Ball, 1853-1865 ; Joseph G. Downer, 1853-1866 ; Thom- 
as B. Hudson, 1853-1855 ; and Isaac Cooper, 1853-1854. The 
present board consists of Bliphalet F. Putnam, 1853 ; Haverly 
Brooks, 1859 ; Kichard H Bloom, 1865 ; Charles P. Williams, 
1865 ; James Seymour, Jr., 1866; and Edward C. Selover, 1876. 

The secular affairs of the congregation have been conducted 
with like ability and care, and always in harmony with its spiritual 
interests. Beside the names which have already been mention- 
ed as having had official connection with the congregation, there 
are to be added, as trustees, those of Isaac Selover, John H. Har- 
denbergh, chosen in 1836 ; Ebenezer Jenkins, 1839-1842 ; Wil- 
liam Woods, 1842-1851 ; Horace L. Knight, 1843-1846 ; Wil- 
liam B. Smith, 1844-1850 ; Henry Ivison, 1844-1846 ; George 
Dyer, 1846-1853 ; Corydon H Merriman, 1847-1875 ; John S. 
Clary, 1848-1857 ; George W. Leonard, 1850-1865 ; George J. 
Letchworth, 1865-1871 ; Erastus Case, 1852-1857. * Four of the 



i Died October 21, 1857. 



75 . 

present members of the session have, at various periods, served 
as trustees, viz : Richard Steel, Israel F. Terrill, Albert H. Gross, 
and Charles A. Lee. The board as now constituted is as follows : 
John Olmsted, chosen in 1837, and for many years the faithful 
treasurer of the society ; Harmon Woodruff, 1846 ; John S. Fow- 
ler, 1858 ; Horace T. Cook, the present treasurer, 1865 ; Edward 
C. Selover, 1865 ; Byron C. Smith, 1871 ; and Warren Crocker, 
1875. 

In closing this narrative which has occupied our attention for 
two Sabbaths, we leave almost untouched a period of twenty 
years. It may be that after we all shall have passed away, the 
one who shall then occupy this place, will deem that portion of 
our history worthy to be rehearsed to the generation that shall 
then occupy these seats and uphold the interests of this vener- 
able and honored church. Only let us be faithful while we live 
to the principles, both of doctrine and life, on which it was built 
and out of which has come all the good that it has wrought ; and 
we may cherish the hope that after we are gone and time shall 
have dealt kindly with our mistakes, hiding them forever in the 
grave of the past, some good shall remain, deserving a place in 
the memories of men, and on which will rest the favor of God. 



H 112 82 






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